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A NEW report has laid bare the harmful impact of remanding children in custody despite almost three-quarters not going on to receive a custodial sentence.
Focusing on the testimonies of five teenagers held in jail last summer, the Howard League for Penal Reform charity briefing highlights failures by statutory services to protect children from exploitation and poor education in prison.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has recognised that the use of remand should be kept to a minimum, but official figures show that in the year up to March 2021 three-quarters of children remanded did not go on to receive a custodial sentence — the highest level on record.
The five teenagers in the report described their experience of imprisonment as traumatic and violent, and experienced declining mental health.
Children on remand should receive additional care to those serving sentences, but all five said they felt they were treated the same as those convicted.
Howard League chief executive Andrea Coomber said: “Custodial remand punishes children for the mistakes of the services around them and exposes them to abusive prison environments.
“It does untold damage to their mental health and prevents them from working towards their goals with support from professionals, as they could do on bail.
“The Ministry of Justice has recognised that keeping the use of remand to a minimum is critically important; the challenge now is to follow this with action. It requires not only a change in practice, but a change in culture, too.”
The charity is also calling for the MoJ to abolish the option of remanding children in custody for their own welfare, arguing that prisons are “not equipped to provide the support that is required in such cases.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Guidance to judges and magistrates is clear that children should only be remanded in custody as a last resort.
“The number of children sentenced to custody has fallen over 70 per cent in the last decade and our sentencing reforms will provide stronger alternatives to custody and require courts to provide written reasons for the decision to remand children.”
