Youth Justice News
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225413506161 |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Author | Tim Bateman |
| Subject Matter | Youth Justice News |
Youth Justice
13(3) 258 –269
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1473225413506161
yjj.sagepub.com
Youth Justice News
Compiled by Tim Bateman
All Prison Service Custodial Units for Girls in England and
Wales to be Decommissioned
Children subject to custodial remand or sentence in England and Wales are detained in
one of three institutions that, taken together, comprise the secure estate for children and
young people: prison service young offender institutions (YOIs); privately managed
secure training centres (STCs); and local authority managed secure children’s homes
(SCHs). Girls represent a relatively small proportion of the imprisoned population and, in
2005, the Youth Justice Board implemented a long-held aspiration to remove all females
below the age of 17 years from YOIs to the two other forms of provision. In the same year,
five discrete YOI units for 17 year-old girls were opened, although two of these have
closed in the intervening period.
Youth custody has declined significantly in recent years. In June 2013, there were 1237
children below the age of 18 years detained in the secure estate compared with 3072 in
June 2008, representing a decline of almost 60 per cent. In consequence, elements of
youth custodial provision have been decommissioned. In a statement given in response to
a Parliamentary question on 18 July 2013, Jeremy Wright, Parliamentary Under-Secretary
with responsibility for youth justice, confirmed that since April 2000, the Youth Justice
Board has withdrawn commissioning from 13 YOIs, a reduction of 1850 places. Over the
same period, the Board has ceased contracting with 15 SCHs, leading to 150 fewer place-
ments for younger and more vulnerable children.
The fall in the number of girls deprived of their liberty has been sharper than that for
their male counterparts. Between June 2008 and June 2013, the population of incarcerated
girls fell by more than 77 per cent: in the latter month, just 51 girls were in custody. At the
same time, legislative changes, implemented on 3 December 2012, permitted placement
of 17 year-olds subject to custodial remand (who had previously been treated as adults for
remand purposes), outside of YOIs.
In July 2013, the Youth Justice Board announced that it would withdraw fully from the
remaining three YOIs accommodating girls below the age of 18 years. As indicated in
Table 1, the units had a combined capacity to provide 41 custodial places, but in April
Corresponding author:
Tim Bateman, Department of Applied Social Studies, University of Bedfordshire, Park Square, Luton LU1 3JU, UK.
Email: tim.bateman@beds.ac.uk
506161YJJ13310.1177/1473225413506161Youth JusticeBateman
2013
To continue reading
Request your trial