PENAL reform campaigners slammed the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) today for hiring an evangelical Christian charity to teach child prisoners in Kent.

The Oasis Charitable Trust won a government contract today to provide education services at the notorious Medway Secure Training Centre.

The scandal-hit centre was run by G4S until 2016 when it was taken over by the MoJ after secret filming revealed staff inflicting pain on children.

The government now plans to rebrand Medway a “secure school” which will reopen in 2020 with a £5 million cash injection.

However campaigners are dismayed at the choice of Oasis to front the new scheme. 

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform told the Morning Star: “I am very worried by the decision to award this contract to an organisation that seems to have a one-sided view of the world.

“I am similarly worried by the suggestion that a so-called ‘secure school’ is an answer to the problem.

“A £5m investment might be enough for a renaming exercise and a new sign, but it will do nothing to help children stuck in a harmful institution that has been failing for years.”

Child rights group Article 39 also savaged the decision.

Its director Carolyne Willow said: “Oasis Charitable Trust appears to lack any experience of looking after children in a residential setting. 

“There are inevitable parallels with G4S and Serco being handed contracts to run secure training centres in the late 1990s without any relevant experience.

“Secure training centres were similarly marketed as centres of excellence in children’s education and care. 

“Nothing I have seen or heard shows that the government has properly reflected on why children suffered so badly for so long in those institutions.”

However Oasis boss Reverend Steve Chalke said: “Oasis has long provided housing for vulnerable young adults and over the last decade we have partnered with communities across the country providing education that has enabled many young people and their families to overcome the obstacles life has thrown at them and meet their potential.”

Tory Justice Minister Edward Argar MP praised the charity, saying: “I have been impressed by Oasis’s dedication to improving the lives of young people and its track record across education, health and youth work.”