NCJ Number
165643
Date Published
1996
Length
34 pages
Annotation
With the introduction of England's Criminal Justice Act of 1991 and its tighter criteria for remanding juveniles to secure accommodation and the announcement of plans to provide new local authority secure places, it was expected that the number of 15- and 16-year-old boys remanded to prison would steadily fall.
Abstract
Instead, the number started to rise and has continued to rise ever since. In 1995, 1,889 15- and 16-year-old boys were remanded to prison, compared to 1,098 in 1992. The Criminal Justice Act also placed a duty on local authorities to make available or plan access to secure accommodation, but the desired goal of phasing out the use of prison for juvenile remands was not realized. Approximately half of all 15- and 16-year-old boys were remanded to prison between 1990 and 1995 for burglary, 15 percent were remanded for motoring offenses, and between 10 and 20 percent were remanded for violent offenses. Remand to prison was the culmination of a process in which different criminal justice agencies took the lead at different points. These agencies included police departments, probation services, the Crown Prosecution Service, social service departments, voluntary organizations, courts, and the Prison Service. The Code of Practice for juvenile remand proceedings is offered as a guide and checklist for everyone involved at each stage of the juvenile remand process. A checklist of juvenile remand proceedings for court staff, juvenile remand information, and data on available secure accommodation places are appended. Tables and figures