Ending the overnight detention of children in police custody

Work with offenders on a new report from Just for Kids Law

Just for Kids Law (JfKL) has published a new briefing paper ‘It’s horrible when they keep you in there at night’, which was launched at a national conference on 21st February. The report considers the overnight detention of children in police custody looking at the latest data and developments on this issue and makes a number of recommendations for change in policy and practice, aimed at safeguarding children from overnight detention in police cells.

Lack of data

Despite there being no available national published data on the number of occasions in which children are detained in police custody each year, including overnight detention, Independent Custody Visitors (ICV) reported the detention of children in cells in similar conditions to adult cells and failure to make adjustments to support children’s emotional welfare.

The research, which gathered data via Freedom of Information requests revealed that in 2019 at least 21,369 children were detained overnight in police custody either pre- or post-charge. This figure is a significant underestimate because it only includes responses from 34 out of 43 police forces.

The report found that despite some reduction in overnight detention being reported, the picture is not consistent. One police force area was found in 2019 to have detained a 16-yearold girl for nearly five days (4 days and 10 hours) post-charge and a 10-year old child for 23 hours; in 2021 data for this force area revealed that a 16-year-old boy was detained for 5 days (5 days and 17 hours) following a warrant being issued for his arrest.

There are particular concerns about younger children being held overnight with 6,779 children aged 15 years and under detained including at least 244 children aged 12 and under. Again, this figure is an under-estimate.

Racial disparities continue to exist for black and minority ethnic children. In the Metropolitan Police, 44.4% (3,127) of those detained overnight in police custody were Black children, with a total of 23.2% (1,636) from other ethnic groups.

Recommendations

JfKL makes a number of recommendations calling amongst other things, increased monitoring, reviewing and reporting of overnight detention by the government, police forces, local authorities and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. There is a call for training for sentencers and a recommendation for the government to proactively encourage local authorities and police forces to sign up to the Home Office Concordat on Children in Custody.

They also call on the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to both publish a 'Learning the Lessons' on the overnight detention of children in police custody and carry out a thematic review of cases concerning detention of children in police custody with a focus on race and disproportionality.