Young people and youth justice

The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill has been introduced into the House of Commons. Subject to its parliamentary progress, the bill is expected to receive Royal Assent by the end of 2014.

The Bill is designed to make a range of provisions regarding sentencing, youth justice, and the courts, including the creation of secure colleges for young offenders and requiring the presence of an appropriate adult when giving a caution or conditional caution to 17 year olds.

For further information visit www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-and-courts-bill.

The Youth Justice Board has published Deaths of Children in Custody: Action Taken, Lessons Learnt.

Since 2000 the board has been responsible for placing children in secure units and in that time 16 boys have tragically died in custody. The report outlines the work the board has done and the action taken, in respect of each boy's death. It also outlines the board’s work to improve legislation, governance, assessment and training, in order to reduce the chance of further tragedies in the future.

For further information and to download the report visit www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-releases/yjb/yjb-publishes-report-deaths-of-children-in-custody-action-taken,-lessons-learnt.

The Ministry of Justice has announced that it will be establishing an independent review into the self inflicted deaths of 18-24 year olds in custody, conducted by the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody.

The purpose of the review will be to make recommendations for reducing the risk of future deaths in custody focusing on 18-24 year olds. The government's response to Transforming Management of Young Adults in Custody, which included plans to send young people to adult jails, has been put on hold until they have received the recommendations from the review, due to be spring 2015.

For further information on the review visit www.justice.gov.uk/about/deaths-in-custody-independent-review.

For further information on the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody visit http://iapdeathsincustody.independent.gov.uk.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice has published its annual youth justice statistics, which show that:

• In 2012/13, there were 27,854 first time entrants to the system, a drop of 25 percent compared to the 2011/12 figure of 36,677;
• The total number of proven offences has fallen for the seventh consecutive year, down 28 percent from 137,335 in 2011/12 to 98,837 in 2012/13;
• Of 43,601 young people sentenced in England and Wales in 2012/13, 2,780 were given an immediate custodial sentence, a rate of 6.4 percent, compared to 6.7 percent in 2011/12; and
• The number of restraint incidents per 100 young people rose from 25.1 restraints per 100 young people in 2011/12, to 25.6 in 2012/13.

To download the full statistics visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/youth-justice-statistics.

The Ministry of Justice has also published proven re-offending quarterly statistics for April 2011 to March 2012, which show that:

• Around 71,000 juvenile offenders were cautioned, convicted or released from custody between April 2011 and March 2012 and around 25,000 of them committed a re-offence, giving a proven re-offending rate of 35.5 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous 12 months; and
• the proven re-offending rate for juvenile offenders released from custody between April 2011 and March 2012 was 69.3 percent, a fall of 3.3 percentage points compared to the previous 12 months and a fall of 7.5 percentage points since 2000.

To download the full statistics visit www.gov.uk/government/publications/proven-reoffending-statistics-april-2011-march-2012.

Lastly, the Middlesex University has been commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to conduct a Rapid Review of Evidence on what works in managing young people who offend, aged 10-18 years.

They are looking for unpublished material and/or material published in non-academic places including documents, reports, briefings or other literature that is in the public domain.

The findings from the review are expected to be published later this year by the Ministry of Justice. To submit work email WWYJ@mdx.ac.uk.