Our research shows strong public support for community sentences over youth custody
Last year we launched our new campaign work focusing on youth custody, in partnership with Alliance for Youth Justice and Transform Justice. Together, we’re calling for an end to the unnecessary imprisonment of children.
Every year too many children in England and Wales are imprisoned when they don’t need to be. This is something the government has recently admitted themselves.
You only have to look at the statistics for remand to see that: in the year ending March 2024, almost two thirds (62%) of children remanded to youth custody did not subsequently receive a custodial sentence. These children have been deprived of their liberty at a critical and formative moment in their lives – placed in unstable and harmful environments that disrupt their education and sever any positive social relationships they have in the community. This cannot continue. Our campaign work aims to end this injustice and deliver lasting change.
Our latest research
To drive systemic change in youth justice, we wanted to understand the public’s perspectives on the use of prison for children and their appetite for reform, including greater use of community sentences. That’s why we carried out research with More in Common at the start of this year and made sure we asked adults from across the political spectrum, too.
Although our campaign work focuses on England and Wales, as a UK wide funder, we think it’s important to understand what people across the UK think about the use of prison for children. That’s why we gathered views from across the UK. We’ll use this insight not only to shape our campaign and influencing work in England and Wales, but to explore what other opportunities exist in Northern Ireland and Scotland to positively influence the use of youth custody there too.
You can view the findings from our research with More in Common, including a link to the data in full, and our recommendations for next steps in this report.
Thanks to Dr Anne-Marie Day and our campaign partners for helping to shape and deliver this report.
Some of the findings that stood out the most to me, were:
- 70% of the public support the use of community sentences for children – 68% for victims
- The public prefers rehabilitation over punishment for children
- 52% of the public believe that remand (imprisoning children before trial) is wrong
- There is public support for increasing the age of criminal responsibility for children.
Listening to victims
Although people sometimes assume that victims take a punitive approach to justice, our research shows that victims of crime displayed similar levels of empathy and understanding towards children in the justice system as the general public. Their own experience did not appear to sway their views towards children in the justice system.
We understand the damaging and lasting impact crime can have on victims. Building a fair and effective justice system involves really listening to and showing empathy towards victims and their experiences. That’s why it was important to us that this research actively sought to understand their perspectives, ensuring the findings reflect both compassion for victims while also understanding wider public feelings, too.
Recommendations
Drawing on existing sector-wide research, the views of young people with lived experience of the justice system and the findings from our recent research referenced earlier, we set out the following recommendations:
- Increase the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Review child sentencing and ensure custody is truly used as a last resort and for the shortest time possible, reserved only for the most serious violent and sexual offences
- End the unnecessary remand of children and put more funding into alternatives, such as specialist foster care
- Invest heavily in Youth Justice Services and more community alternatives to custody
- Close all Young Offender Institutions and the last remaining Secure Training Centre, ensuring that custody is used only as a last resort. When it is deemed necessary, children should be cared for in small residential units close to their homes, staffed by trauma-informed practitioners, following the existing Secure Children’s Homes model
- Set out a plan for how best to address the intersecting vulnerabilities of children affected by sentencing – including ethnicity, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), care experience, and mental health needs
- Implement recommendation 34 of the Lammy review which calls for sealing or expunging childhood criminal records where rehabilitation has taken place
- Embark on a public awareness campaign about children and their experiences in the justice system.
What’s next?
We’ll be using the insights we’ve gathered from this research and working with our campaign partners to shape our campaign work and advocate for ambitious reform over the next 12 months.
Stay up-to-date with our campaign work by following us on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Have questions about this research? Drop me an email on sophie.beresford@coop.co.uk