A PRISON for young offenders is facing an uncertain future after a decline in the number of inmates.

Huntercombe Young Offenders’ Institution, near Wallingford, currently holds about 150 people aged 15-18.

But the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is now thinking of using the facility to house adult prisoners instead.

A spokesman for NOMS said: “We aim to get good value for money for the taxpayer by meeting prison capacity requirements more efficiently.

“As the number of juveniles in custody is decreasing, we have proposed using HMYOI Huntercombe to hold adult prisoners.

“No formal decision has yet been made, but we are keeping staff updated.”

She said it was not expected that any of the 281 members of staff would be made redundant.