The youth custody service is at crisis point and facing "meltdown" with a record number of youngsters being held in secure accommodation, according to a group of experts.

The Youth Justice Board, which oversees the system in England and Wales, said more than 3,350 under-18s were currently being held and only a handful of beds were free.

Some inmates were being kept at units hundreds of miles from their homes, making it hard for them to stay in touch with their families.

"We can't simply put up a sign saying 'No Vacancies,'" said the board's chairman Rod Morgan.

"Action is urgently needed to stop custody for young people going into meltdown."

The rise in the custody numbers could mean more young people committing suicide and an increased risk of major disturbances, he added.

Earlier this month inmates at Stoke Heath Young Offender Institution in Shropshire rioted for nine hours, causing widespread damage.

The problem in the youth system echoes a similar crisis of overcrowding in the adult jail service where the number of prisoners has also reached record highs.

Inmates are now being held in police cells because of the shortage of spaces and Home Secretary John Reid is now considering using prison ships.

Anne Owers, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, said much good work was done in young offender units but called for a debate on finding alternative ways of dealing with those who had committed less serious crimes.

She advocated greater use of supervised community sentences which she said helped to stop reoffending.

"Every time I go into a custodial establishment, I see staff achieving amazing things in difficult circumstances with highly troubled young people. But I fear the system is approaching breaking point," she said.

Earlier this month, the most senior judge in England and Wales said adult prisons were too crowded to give proper rehabilitation, adding they were often used as "social dustbins" for drug addicts and the mentally ill.

The Children's Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, said the same message applied to youth establishments.

"Custody is not effective in preventing crime," he said. "It is costly and does enormous damage to children who are, for the most part, already extremely vulnerable.

It fails to offer children the support they need to rehabilitate and change their behaviour."

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.