Youth Justice In Depth
Transforming youth custody: sector feeds into vision for radical reform
Responses to the youth custody green paper indicate broad support for the government’s aim to create a more therapeutic secure estate, but with notes of caution on efforts to raise the educational attainment of offenders.
Legal Update: Rights of 17-year-olds in custody
A recent case has ruled that 17-year-olds be treated as children when arrested and held in police custody, says Kirsten Anderson, legal research and policy manager at Coram Children’s Legal Centre.
Policing priorities for children revealed
In her first interview as police lead for children and young people, Jacqui Cheer outlines her new youth strategy.
Legal Update: Education for children in custody
Proposals to introduce secure colleges are unlikely to achieve the government’s aim of rehabilitating offenders, says Kirsten Anderson, legal research and policy manager at Coram Children’s Legal Centre
Good Practice Case Studies
Good Idea: Triage scheme to divert young offenders from custody
Low-level young offenders are diverted from the criminal justice system by taking part in community payback schemes, reparation projects and other restorative programmes
How Southwark’s multi-agency unit drives down violent youth crime
Southwark's multi-agency team has a radical impact in reducing gun and knife crime among young people
How early action in Glasgow is driving down crime
An intervention project has played a central role in reducing the number of offences committed by young people in 2010/11 by 32 per cent
How a nationwide project is helping young offenders to stand up for their legal rights
The UR Boss initiative works to make sure young offenders have access to information on their legal rights and entitlements
Good Practice: How a safe haven project is reducing violent crime in Liverpool
The CitySafe Havens initiative has reduced violent crime in the city by 29.6 per cent
Latest Youth Justice News
- Oakhill STC inspection raises safeguarding concerns
- Girls in gangs ‘face greater mental health risks’
- Howard League attacks scale of child DNA swabs
- MoJ shelves plans to transfer custody budgets
- ‘Mini’ inspections reveal mixed picture for YOTs
- Payment-by-results cuts demand on youth justice services
- Troubled families initiative misses first-year target
- YOI child-to-staff ratio to rise
Youth Justice Comment
We need young people
on board, ‘warts and all’
Seventeen-year-old Paris Brown quit as the country’s first youth crime commissioner in Kent just days after her appointment for posting offensive tweets in her younger days. Her posts were stupid and naïve at the very least, but how many people’s adolescence, past and...
Children and Families Bill must heed children’s views
The Children and Families Bill, which began its second reading in parliament last week, focuses in large part on the most vulnerable children in society.
Education for offenders has to make the grade
The government’s desire to put education at the centre of youth custody and tackle the stubbornly high reoffending rates – still in excess of 70 per cent – is, on the face of it, welcome.
