Boys on Prison Remand
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059304000118 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
45
REPORTS
BRIEFING
Boys
on
Prison
Remand
Awaiting
Trial
(ACOP/NACRO,
December
1992)
reports
a
survey
of
juveniles
(ic
boys
aged
15-16)
remand-
ed
in
custody
April-September
1992.
421
boys
were
remanded,
with
a daily
average
number
of
56,
compared
with
94
in
1989.
Two-thirds
were
aged
16.
Most
were
charged
with
non-violent
offences:
43%
property
crime,
13%
motoring
and
TWOC.
The
largest
single
offence
category
was
burglary
(37%).
Violent
or
sexual
offences,
in-
cluding
robbery,
accounted
four 25%.
The
prison
establishment
holding
the
greatest
daily
average
was
Low
Newton.
Striking
variations
were
noted
bet-
ween
areas,
including
significant
dif-
ferences
between
similar
areas.
Cumbria
produced
10
custodial
remands
while
Devon
had
none;
Cheshire
had
14
while
Derbyshire
had
one.
Cleveland
alone
produced
23,
more
than
the
whole
of
the
South
and
South
West
of
England
combined.
Most
custodial
remands
arose
in
adult
magistrates
courts
(63%)
and
raises
the
question
whether
adequate
local
authority
input
is
made
available
there.
&dquo;
15%
of
remanded
young
people
were
from
ethnic
minorities,
compared
with
5 %
in
the
general
population.
Afro-Caribbean
and
Asian
young
peo-
ple
accounted
for
51%
of
remands
from
the
London
region
and
36%
from
Birmingham.
In
London
a
further
23 %
of
those
remanded
were
thought
to
be
travellers.
Available
free
from
NACRO,
1st
floor,
Princess
House,
105-107
Princess
Street,
Manchester
Ml
6DD.
Foreign
National
Drug
Couficfs
In
mid-1991,
Middlesex
Probation
Ser-
vice,
which
serves
the
courts
dealing
with
foreign
nationals
arrested
on
en-
try
at
Heathrow,
established
a
research
project
to
test
the
feasibility
of
prepar-
ing
useful,
good
standard
pre-sentence
reports
on
defendants
not
resident
in
the
UK
and
to
identify
what
services
could
be
offered
by
the
Service
to
those
awaiting
trial.
After
a
year’s
work,
the
Foreign
National
Illegal
Drug
Importers
Project
now
reports
its
conclusions
in
Drug
~r~~c~iers:
A
Role for
the
Probation
Ser-
vice
(November
1992)
by
Rosemary
Abernethy
and
Nick
Hammond,
the
seconded
project
workers.
In
summary,
the
conclusions
are
positive
and
en-
couraging.
It
had
proved
possible
to
produce
full,
informative
reports,
fre-
quently
backed
with
independent
verification
from
abroad.
Reports
have
been
welcomed
both
by
senteneers,
by
colleagues
as
an
aid
to
sentence
plan-
ning
and
by
defendants
as
a
welcome
contribution
to
receiving
a
fair
hearing.
Knowledge
of
the
offender
as
an
in-
dividual
has
been
enhanced,
counteracting
a
common
tendency
to
view
them
stereotypically.
It
has
also
been
possible
to
demonstrate
the
special
needs,
in-
cluding
health
problems,
of
those
awaiting
trial
which
can
be
addressed
by
co-ordinated
efforts
between
statutory
agencies,
voluntary
groups
and
relevant
embassies.
It
is
too
early
to
say
whether
the
project
has
had
significant
impact
on
the
sentencing
of
drug
importers,
for
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