| Description | British Psychological Society Professional Affairs Board comments on the Home Office Green Paper Youth Custody and Supervision includes delinquency and recidivism, residential regimes and treatment in the community; the need for a new sentence, behaviour modification, hostels in the community, in custody by default, brief sentences, limitations of custodial sentence, custodial regimes and discretionary release. Bibliography.
This Green paper led to a White Paper 'Young Offenders' in 1980 and the Criminal Justice Act being passed in 1982. |
| AdminHistory | 1908
Children Act – Established a separate juvenile court for the first time dealing with both crime and welfare issues; abolished custody for children below 14 in the juvenile court; introduced new short-term sentences for detention in police-run remand homes.
1908
Prevention of Crime Act rolls out borstals nationally for males aged 16-20 on an indeterminate sentence between one and three years. Release is followed by a supervised licence period of resettlement in the community.
1933
Children and Young Persons Act requires courts to have regard to a child’s welfare, raises the age of criminal responsibility to eight years old, and abolishes the death penalty for the under 18s.
1933
Home Office approved schools are also created by the Children and Young Persons Act. Replacing both reformatories and industrial schools, the voluntary units house both children deemed criminal and those beyond parental control.
1948
Criminal Justice Act abolishes committal to adult prisons for children under 17 years, but allows other types of custody. Non-custodial Attendance Centres are introduced for children over 12 to be sent for specified daytime activities.
1952
Detention Centres are opened, where sentences of up to three months are intended as a ‘short, sharp, shock’ for 14 to 20 year olds. The 1948 Act introduced them to replace court-imposed corporal punishment.
1959
Rioting at Carlton Approved School involving staff being stoned and mass absconding damages public confidence in Approved Schools. The resulting inquiry recommended the use of more closed facilities for difficult children.
1961
Ingleby Report recommends raising the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12. Set up in 1956, the Committee emphasises local authority welfare, early intervention and support for the family.
1963
Children and Young Persons Act raises the age of criminal responsibility to 10. Responding to the Ingleby Report, it also requires local authorities to undertake preventative work with children and families at risk of offending.
1964
The first Secure Unit opens in Kingswood, near Bristol. Proposed by a Home Office Inspectorate group in 1961, the custodial units are meant for children aged 10 to 18 who have absconded from open Approved Schools.
1964
Longford Report recommends the abolition of the juvenile court and replacement by a panel of experts. The recommendation is adopted by the Labour government and appears in a White Paper, but is subsequently dropped.
1967
Court Lees Approved School exposed in the press and a later Home Office inquiry for alleged abusive use of corporal punishment. It is one of several similar scandals at Approved Schools, fuelling public discontent.
1969
Children and Young Persons Act introduces supervision orders and care orders. Secure units and approved schools are combined into local authority community homes. Its raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 is never implemented.
1971
The first of two youth treatment centres opens at St Charles, Essex. The Department of Health units are for young people considered too disturbed for other custodial options. Both youth treatment centres are closed by 2002.
1982
Criminal Justice Act merges youth imprisonment and borstals into youth custody centres for the under 21s, restricting use to a last resort. Detention centres are reaffirmed as a short, sharp shock. ‘Specified activities’ are introduced.
1983
Intermediate treatment and intensive probation initiatives are introduced by the Department of Health to fund alternatives to custody for children. £15 million of funding leads to 98 new diversionary projects by 1985. Custody rates fall dramatically.
1985
United Nations “Beijing Rules” (UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice) emphasise that children’s detention should only be a last resort. In 1990, “Riyadh Guidelines” set standards for care in juvenile justice.
1988
Criminal Justice Act restricts the use of custody for children and provides specified activities as a statutory alternative to custody. Youth custody centres and detention centres combine to form young offender institutions.
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