The Out of Trouble team at the Prison Reform Trust aims to reduce the number of children and young people imprisoned in the UK.  We lock up proportionately more children than any other country in Western Europe; the number of children sentenced to custody in England in England and Wales more than tripled between 1991 and 2006.   Imprisonment of children should be a last resort, but in England and Wales children as young as 12 are imprisoned for non-violent crimes or for no crime at all – a fifth of those in custody have pleased innocent and are awaiting trial.   At any one time 2,500-3,000 under 18 year olds are locked up. Over the last two years we’ve gathered evidence of how custody is over-used and shown how numbers can be reduced.  We’ve brought together this evidence in the following publications

1.       Criminal Damage: why we should local up fewer children.  This expands on the reasons why the Prison Reform Trust feels custody is over used and proposed twelve ways in which numbers could be reduced including banning judges and magistrates from sentencing teenagers to custody for breaching community orders and expanding the use of intensive fostering as an alternative to custody.  This publication also cites a public opinion survey we commissioned from ICM.  We asked over a thousand people how they thought non-violent young offenders should be dealt with.  Most thought prison was not the answer.

2.       Children: innocent until proven guilty  We were worried that a fifth of under 18 year olds in custody were there on remand.  In order to find out why so many innocent children were behind bars we commissioned research.  We found that two thirds of those locked up on remand are either acquitted or get a community sentence and that over 1500 under 18 year olds are imprisoned each year for a week or less.  We produced a further 12 point plan on how to reduce remand.  Our top demand is for a change in the law so bail law is made more appropriate to vulnerable young people. 

3.       Reducing child imprisonment in England and Wales – lesson from abroad.  Other countries imprison far fewer children than we do.  Many European countries have always approached children who do wrong as children in need.  But we have also discovered that the most unlikely places have resolved to and succeeded in reducing the number of children imprisoned.  This report cites Canada and New York State, among others, as places which have changed law or the way they work or both in order to prevent children being locked up.

4.       Making amends – restorative youth justice in Northern Ireland  The Prison Reform Trust is a great supporter of restorative justice as an alternative to custody, or to community sentences.  We were excited to hear that Northern Ireland radically reformed their youth justice system and reduced the number of children locked up.  The new system they brought in involved restorative conferencing.  Under 18 year olds who commit crime are encouraged to meet their victim and hear about the impact of their crime. The perpetrator has to apologise for it and promise to make amends.  We were impressed by the success of this approach in terms of reducing re-offending and indirectly reducing custody.

5.       Vulnerable Defendants in the Criminal Courts: a review of provision for adults and children.  The decision to imprison is made in the court and the Out of Trouble team has long been concerned that the court system in England and Wales is not fit to deal with children.  This report looks at how the courts deal with vulnerable people, particularly adults with learning disabilities and children.  It concludes that the age of criminal responsibility should be raised and that our courts need to address the welfare needs and well as the deeds of the children who offend

 

As well as gathering together the evidence to prove that too many children are imprisoned, we’ve been hammering on doors and talking to those directly involved in the decision to imprison.  We are cautiously optimistic that the combined efforts of us, our voluntary sector colleagues, the Youth Justice Board and committed practitioners across the country may be having a positive effect. 

The number of children imprisoned this year is lower than previous years.  In November 2009 there were 2,318 under 18 year olds imprisoned, a 15% reduction on the same time last year.  In 2010 we hope numbers will go down a similar amount and that we can begin to get the same reduction with young people (18-24) across all the nations of the UK.

Latest news: child custody figures reach record low

New Out of Trouble website