This is why the Youth Justice Board is consulting on devolving the costs of custody to local authorities. The argument goes that councils will be inclined to devote more of their energies to community alternatives if they have to foot the bill for custody. But as we report this week, while the principle behind devolution is attractive, in practice it is strewn with complexity.
A move in this direction is necessary but a better solution would be to devolve costs not to local authorities but to children's trusts, so that all the agencies that are partners in trusts and in youth offending teams have a proper stake in keeping children out of prison.
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