Editorial: Don't let this latest death in custody be in vain

Liam McManus became the 30th child to die in custody in England and Wales and the first for more than two years. His suicide has passed with relatively little fuss. It shouldn't. McManus's tragedy must focus minds on two massively important issues for the youth justice system.

First, we lock up far too many children - more than any other country in Europe with the exception of Turkey. McManus was a persistent but minor offender with a deeply-troubled background. His mother was in prison and his father was dead so he was brought up by his uncle and aunt. He had been in custody twice before and was this time around half way through a six-week sentence for breaching a supervision order. Repeatedly sentencing him to custody hardly addressed the root causes of his offending behaviour. It was a Victorian punitive measure doomed to fail, and as it turned out, tragically. It was decided he was not sufficiently vulnerable to be placed in a secure children's home but he clearly didn't have the resilience to remain in a YOI. Prison was no place for this boy.