Speaking at the Youth Justice Board's (YJB) annual convention inCardiff, Baroness Scotland said youth offending teams must persuadejudges to give teenagers community sentences instead of jailingthem.
She admitted that the "secure estate is effectively operating at fullcapacity", saying the situation would lead to more children beingimprisoned far away from home and hinder efforts to safeguard youngoffenders.
However, she said youth offending teams could do more to limit thenumber of children put into custody. "Youth offending team workers havea critical role to play in compiling accurate risk assessments andpre-sentence reports, which will contribute to sentencers makingappropriate decisions about disposals," she said.
Rod Morgan, chair of the YJB, echoed the comments. "In relation tocustody we are in crisis and have to be certain we're doing everythingwe can about this, both centrally and locally," he said. "At a locallevel, (youth offending teams) must ensure every pre-sentence reportsupports clearly the case for community interventions. And, when youfail to get a community sentence, I hope (teams) always systematicallyexamine why."
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