Majority of riot arrests involve young people
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The majority of arrests made following the London riots involve under-18s, a leading youth justice figure has revealed.
Lorna Hadley, chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers (AYM), told CYP Now it is likely many children arrested will be remanded in custody due to the zero-tolerance policy being adopted.
It is understood that as many as 400 arrests have been made in London since Sunday evening relating to the riots. It has been reported that police cells in London have reached capacity and alternatives outside the capital are now being used.
"There are some older ones, but it seems many younger people are tagging along," Hadley said.
She added that the situation is likely to complicate the introduction of justice reinvestment pilots across the capital later this year.
Starting in October, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will give groups of youth offending teams (YOTs) millions of pounds from the central custody budget in return for pledging to cut custody over two years.
However, the scheme could be affected by an increase in custody levels over the coming months if young people are eventually sentenced to custody.
Hadley said numbers of children implicated could rise over the coming weeks as specialist teams of police trawl through hours of closed circuit television footage in affected areas.
