NCJ Number
140722
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
British youth courts are empowered to remand juveniles in custody where they are considered to be too "unruly of character" to be committed to the care of a local authority.
Abstract
Most juvenile workers agree that "unruly of character" custodial remands are undesirable and that juveniles who need to be remanded in secure conditions should be placed in a community home staffed by youth specialists rather than in a prison establishment. Since the mid-1970's, the British government has restricted the scope of juvenile remands in custody; custodial remands can now be used only for boys aged 15 and 16. As a result, the number of untried juveniles entering remand centers fell from 4,812 in 1976 to 1,630 in 1984. The conditions in which juveniles remanded in custody are held are usually much worse than those for sentenced young offenders in institutions in terms of overcrowding, long hours of confinement, and lack of integral sanitation in cells. The Criminal Justice Act 1991 contains provisions, to be implemented at a later date, that would completely abolish the remanding of juveniles in custody.