The board has a legal responsibility to monitor the operation of the youth justice system, and is responsible for the purchasing of juvenile custodial facilities for young offenders.
To help meet these responsibilities, it has collected information every six months since October 2000 on the use of custodial and community sentences for young offenders. The information is analysed and made available to the courts and youth offending teams.
The latest figures, for April to September 2002, show that there continue to be wide variations. The ratio between custodial and community sentences issued by courts in London is about one to six, whereas in the East Midlands (a region that has on average a slightly higher gravity of offences), it is one to eight. The ratio in the Southwest is one to 14, meaning that juvenile offenders are less than half as likely to receive a custodial sentence as in London.
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