Young adults on remand

Work with offenders looks at new recommendations to reduce the number of young adults remanded in custody

A new T2A (Transition to Adulthood) briefing on young adults and remand launched today (Thursday 25 January) makes the case for a reform of remand arrangements for young adults.  

T2A (Transition to Adulthood) is an initiative of the Barrow Cadbury Trust’s criminal justice programme. The Trust is an independent, charitable foundation (which does not receive any government funding) committed to bringing about socially just change. The Trust’s criminal justice programme develops and promotes evidence of effective policy and practice for young adults and women at all stages of the criminal justice system, and to enable the voices of those with lived experience to be heard.

T2A focuses on young adults (defined as 18-25 year olds) because they make up a disproportionate number of the prison population. Young adults at the last census were 9.4% of the general population but make up 16% of the prison population, and 23% of those on the most basic regime.

Keeping young adults out of prison 

The T2A report comes hot on the heels of the Chief Inspectorate of Prison’s short thematic review ‘Outcomes for Young Adults in Custody’, which was highly critical of the Government placing young adults in adult prisons without any coherent strategy, despite a decade of research and evidence explaining the uniqueness of the needs of young adults. 

Separate data is not available about the extent to which young adults remanded to custody subsequently receive a custodial sentence. However, we do know that for children under 18 and for women of all ages, the majority of people remanded in custody do not go on to receive a prison sentence. 

The report, authored by respected youth crime expert Rob Allen, acknowledges that there has been a decline in the numbers of young adults remanded in custody, but argues there is plenty of scope for reducing remands further.

In the context of a growing court backlog and highly restricted regimes in prisons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Allen, argues that “it is particularly timely to consider the case for reform of remand arrangements”. There is specific concern about the ‘Extended Custody Time Limits’ introduced by the Government last September. The new limits, introduced to try to manage the massive court backlogs exacerbated by the pandemic, extended the period that a person is legally allowed to spend remanded in custody without a trial. Given that trial backlogs continue to grow, it is likely that this new measure will leave thousands of people on remand in custody for longer than usual. 

The recognition of the need for a distinct approach to young adults has already led to a number of important criminal justice reforms such as expanded explanations in Sentencing Guidelines about how age and immaturity can affect both a young adult’s responsibility for an offence and how a particular sentence may impact on them. However, there has been no corresponding reform for young adults on custodial remand who, the report says: “can be deprived of their liberty for many months, often experiencing very impoverished regimes and … placed at risk of violence and self-harm”.

The briefing examines to what extent the specific developmental needs of young adults are taken into account by courts when making decisions about whether to remand defendants into custody. It also looks at the existing legal provisions which could be applied at the remand stage of criminal proceedings, and whether criminal justice agencies and courts think about the maturity of young adult defendants when making decisions about remanding them.

Additional support 

The report argues that if custodial remands are to be reduced, sufficient services will be needed to support and supervise young adults on bail, whether from the probation service, local government, NHS or voluntary organisations. And bail information schemes need to ensure that courts are made aware of non-custodial options in individual cases.

The local authority may have continuing responsibilities for young adults who have been in their care and may be able to contribute support which could help secure bail. The report suggests that transferring budgetary responsibility for young adult defendants to a more local level – as is the case for under 18s- could stimulate better provision of community-based measures, including suitable accommodation. Current bail hostel arrangements are inadequate. 

Readers who are interested can read the full report here.