24/11/2011 14:39:00
The coalition Government has abandoned plans to axe the Youth Justice Board, justice minister Lord McNally announced on 23 November 2011.The U-turn comes after Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced that his department would not go ahead with plans to abolish the role of chief coroner.
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14/07/2011 11:43:00
The number of children imprisoned in England and Wales has fallen from about 3000 in the first half of 2008 to around 2000 three years later. This significant fall has happened in parallel with a rise in the adult prison population, and despite any major legislative changes. The reduction in youth custody has occurred without an increase in youth crime. In Last resort? Exploring the reduction in child imprisonment 2008-11 Rob Allen analyses why this has happened.
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29/06/2011 00:01:00
Community penalties are now outperforming short prison sentences, according to statistics released today from the latest edition of the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile. If government succeeds in reforming the justice system, building on the success of community measures including diversion into health treatment where appropriate, and holding prison numbers to an unavoidable minimum, it could deliver on its promise of a “rehabilitation revolution”.
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12/05/2011 08:40:00
Too many children and teenagers are locked up, not for committing criminal or anti-social behaviour, but for failing to keep to the conditions of a previous court order. This is in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that tough enforcement is effective in reducing youth crime. In a new report commissioned from NCB, and launched in Parliament today, the Prison Reform Trust explores how and why so many children and teenagers are punished for missing appointments or for transgressing the terms of their anti-social behaviour order.
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03/03/2011 11:55:00
An analysis of data on the numbers of children imprisoned from different areas shows that there is still huge variation between local authority areas. Nationally there has been a 24% drop in the number of custodial sentences meted out to children. The national drop is due to a fall in the number of children appearing in court, to a change in sentencing guidelines, to the work of the Youth Justice Board and to a growing realisation that child custody is ineffective.
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01/12/2009 15:05:00
An unwieldy and opaque justice system is unlawfully undermining the ability of thousands of vulnerable adults and children to understand what is happening to them at court, leaving them to fend for themselves, according to a report published by the Prison Reform Trust.
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