CALL TO PHASE OUT CUSTODY FOR OFFENDERS UNDER 18
01 January 1991
CALL TO PHASE OUT CUSTODY FOR OFFENDERS UNDER 18
bacdoc March=1992
Monday 6 January 1992
NACRO PRESS RELEASE
The Government should end custodial sentences for 15 year old
offenders and phase them out for offenders aged 16 and 17, says
a report published today (6 January) by the National Association
for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO).
The report, entitled "Reducing the Use of Custody for Young
Offenders", was prepared by NACRO's Young Offenders Committee.
The Rt Rev Mark Santer, Bishop of Birmingham, Chair of the
Committee, said yesterday (5 January):
"There is a growing consensus that prison service
establishments are no place for young people who have not
reached the age of majority. Concern has been fuelled by
tragic recent instances of suicide by young prisoners, as
well as by figures showing that 70 to 80 per cent of
juveniles leaving custody are reconvicted within two years.
Over the last decade the courts have sharply reduced their
use of custody for young people and have shown an
increasing readiness to sentence them instead to intensive
supervision in the community.
"Sentences of detention in a young offender institution,
which cannot exceed twelve months for juveniles, contribute
little to public protection. The high re-offending rates
show that they are also ineffective in reforming or
deterring individual young people. We should accept that
prison service custody for this age group is an experiment
which has failed and that community penalties are more
likely to steer most young offenders away from crime. The
small minority of genuinely dangerous young people should
be detained outside the prison system under separate
powers."
The report points out that there was a fall of over 80% in the
number of juveniles (under 17) entering penal establishments
between 1981 and 1990, from 7,587 to 1,450. The use of custody
for young adults aged 17 to 20 has also fallen significantly
since 1985. However, there remain considerable variations in
sentencing: for example, in Crown Courts the proportion of young
adults aged 17 to 20 receiving custodial sentences varies from
38% in Devon to 64% in Gwynedd and Cheshire.
Some of the disparities reflect differences in the type and
extent of youth crime in different areas. However "some at least
are partly attributable to different practices and arrangements
in local areas and the extent to which an effective range of
community options is available to and used by the courts". The
report expresses concern at the disproportionate number of young
black offenders receiving custodial sentences, an
over-representation which "cannot be explained in terms of more
serious offences or offending histories."
The 1991 Criminal Justice Act, which comes into force in
October 1992, will abolish the sentence of detention in a young
offender institution for 14 year olds. The report argues:
"The case for extending this provision to 15 year olds is
strong. Given the similar pattern of offending by both
groups, 15 year olds could similarly be excluded from
custodial provision and brought entirely within the scope
of community and local authority provision. Fewer than 400
fifteen year olds are currently sentenced to custody each
year, representing a little over three 15 year olds per
local authority per annum.
Courts would still be able to detain 15 year olds who commit the
most serious offences under separate powers contained in section
53 of the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act.
The report proposes that the use of custody should
subsequently be phased out for 16 and 17 year olds. The use of
local authority secure accommodation should be considered for
those 16 and 17 year olds for whom a community penalty is
inappropriate. The G