Latest Ministry of Justice statistics, published in April, reveal that the number of young people aged 18 or over in the children’s secure estate has risen by 140 per cent in just five months following the announcement of Operation Safeguard – a policy that shifted the presumed date that a young person transitions from youth to adult custody from their 18th to their 19th birthday, and was introduced to address capacity failures in the adult estate.
In a letter to Hinds, signed by more than 30 organisations, the Alliance for Youth Justice (AYJ) warns that the policy has “overloaded” the capacity of the children’s estate, with young people aged over 18 making up 22 per cent of the youth custody population and an estimated 28 per cent of those in young offenders institutions (YOI).
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