Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, called on youth justice workers to push for the commissioner to probe the situation in a speech at crime charity Nacro's annual youth justice conference in Warwick last week.
He said Al Aynsley-Green had the legal powers to conduct an inquiry into the problems of child custody and that he knew it was an area about which the commissioner had major concerns. "Youth justice workers should apply pressure and push the commissioner to exercise his statutory rights to investigate what's taking place," Solomon said.
Rob Williams, the deputy children's commissioner, said: "The children's commissioner does have the power to undertake an inquiry. We have seriously considered conducting one on the youth justice system, but currently there are a number of policy reviews in this area, such as the government's Youth Crime Action Plan and Lord Bradley's review to examine the mental health of young offenders. We are awaiting the outcome of this work before deciding how best to take forward our concerns with the current system."
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