Youth justice roundup
Neil Puffett
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Children held in cells overnight; early intervention scheme in Lancashire; and gang violence falling in Islington, all in this week's youth justice roundup.
Police forces are breaching the law by detaining children in police cells overnight, a leading police officer has said. The BBC reports that Manchester assistant chief constable Dawn Copley told a group of MPs that police and councils needed to be reminded of their statutory duties that should prevent the practice from taking place.
Plans to spend millions of pounds on 48 new police community support officers (PCSOs) in Lancashire have been scrapped in favour of a social worker-led early intervention scheme. The Lancashire Evening Post reports that Lancashire County Council’s previous Tory administration had set aside £3.7m for four additional PCSOs, working in each of its 12 district council areas. However the new Labour administration has opted instead to spend the money on a new “Early Action Response” service, creating the equivalent of 27 full-time posts, most of whom will be social workers.
Gang and youth violence in Islington is on the slide, a report has found. The Islington Gazette reports that figures released by the London Probation Trust show how wounding and inflicting GBH offences by 10- to 19-year-olds are down in the borough – by 13 per cent and 18 per cent respectively – since 2010. Islington was one of 18 boroughs considered most at risk of gang culture and targeted by a £10m Home Office campaign following the riots in the summer of 2011.