MoJ reveals post-riot custody levels
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
New figures show numbers of children in custody in the wake of last month's riots peaked on 23 August and have now started to fall.
Statistics released in parliament following a question by Labour’s shadow youth justice minister Andy Slaughter detailed numbers of children held in the youth secure estate on each weeknight from 1 August to 5 September this year.
On 5 August, the day before rioting in Tottenham began, the number of children in custody stood at 2,104 and fell slightly to 2,094 by 10 August, before remands to custody as a result of the riots took hold.
Custody levels then rose sharply over the following days, reaching a peak of 2,265 on 23 August – an increase of 171, or 8.2 per cent, in the space of less than two weeks.
Since then, the figure has fallen slightly to the 2,224 for the latest day available of 5 September – still 130 higher than 10 August.
It remains unclear what the medium- to long-term impact of the riots on custody levels will be, with potentially more arrests to be made as a result of detectives scouring CCTV footage.
Meanwhile, some children are yet to go through the court process and could face custodial sentences. According to MoJ statistics 21 per cent (352) of those to have appeared in court were aged 10 to 17.
It is not clear how many children received warnings or out of court action such as a caution.
