Academic Jenni Ward at Middlesex University has published a paper which argues for specialist young adult courts that would ensure distinct and age-appropriate sentencing for young adults.  

Ward believes this model would allow for developmental maturity to be considered with more consistency across the court sentencing system. Carrying over the welfare focus from the youth justice system would foster a greater focus on long-term rehabilitation and reduce re-offending. 

She found that young adults may be disadvantaged when tried by an adult justice system as they are faced with complex legal processes and terminology – making it challenging for them to actively participate and understand what is going on.  

Citing international research conducted on the experiences of young adults in Hong Kong courts, Ward says: 

“The young adults were often confused by the language and unaware of the implications of certain complex legal decisions tasked to them.” 

Ward goes on to explore other international examples of young adult courts, including in New Zealand and Brooklyn, New York. An evaluation of the ‘Brooklyn Young Adult Initiative’ found encouraging results with participants of this programme less likely to receive prison sentences than the comparison group (2% v. 13%) going through the traditional court system, and more likely to consider the outcome of their case was fair. No evidence was found that public safety was compromised. 

Considering the growing evidence, Ward believes the time is right to test a young adult court in the criminal justice system of England and Wales. 

“It is evident that young adult courts by their tailored design are better able to account for the realities of (im)maturity of 18-25-year olds than standard courts and the social risks linked to difficult family and criminogenic environments can be addressed within this dedicated young adult model.” 

Criminal Court Sentencing: The Case for Specialist Young Adult Courts

You can read Jenni Ward’s full paper in the British Journal of Criminology.

[Please note this article is behind a pay wall]

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Diana Ruthven, Barrow Cadbury Trust Communications Manager, shares an insight into our new website – reflecting on what prompted the update and how it will help practitioners access the guidance and research they need.

Over the nine years I have been in post as communications manager we have had two T2A websites.  It seems the average shelf life of a website is around four to five years in the small charity sector.  So it was timely for us to start looking into at how a new website could benefit the work of the T2A campaign.

The premise of the T2A campaign, and hence the website, is that 18-25 year olds are still maturing and therefore should be treated differently from children and older adults by the criminal justice system.  We wanted the website to present practical ways to do this, as well as providing the evidence to back up that premise.

New Chair

In January 2022, we were delighted to announce Leroy Logan had accepted the role of T2A Chair. Leroy Logan MBE had been a Superintendent in the Met Police and was a founding member of the Black Police Association.  Not resting on his laurels on retirement, he was keen to get involved in a campaign that focussed on young people and would address many of the issues he had witnessed in his career – particularly the challenges young adults face when they transition from the youth to the adult system, and the additional support they need to stop offending.  We want the new website to be a resource for professionals working in the justice system, who, like Leroy, want to better understand and provide services that support the young adults in their care.

Working with Practitioners

The new website is intended to be a hub for all things around maturity and the criminal justice system. New to this website was a section on the areas we’re working on and the partners we’re working with. But we also wanted to reflect the broad church of people working on the campaign.  Many of those groups and individuals will of course be working on other issues as well as the T2A campaign.  Many will be practitioners and working with young adults.  A historically hard to reach group, we hope to provide a ‘one stop shop’ where practitioners can find signposting to resources that will help them to work with young adults. 

Ideally we would like those practitioners to work with us to build up those resources, tell us what works, what the obstacles are, and what’s missing.  Our T2A Embedding Manager, Heather Abbey, who was seconded to us from the Ministry of Justice, is already transforming T2A’s work in this area.

T2A animation

Initially we thought we needed a film to describe the T2A campaign.  However, this proved to be tricky to pull off given the complexity of the arguments and the need to keep it short and sweet. Plumping for a punchy animation instead, we are delighted with the results.  Revealing Reality worked patiently with us to fine tune our key messages into a cohesive one-minute-long animation, which you can find on our home page.

We’re happy to say that the T2A website is now finally launched.  While we’re pleased with the final product, we see it as work in progress and are already planning the changes we’d like to make to improve the content and navigation.  Do let us know what you think about the new website if you can spare five minutes.  And if there is anything you’d like to see on the site do let us know. We hope you like it!

Research and reports

Read our research and practical guidance on effective interventions for young adults at different stages of the criminal justice system.

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T2A welcomes a new report from Sheffield and Manchester Universities which finds that over the last decade the number of young adult court appearances have dramatically decreased.  However, we are concerned about data which indicates a disparity between white and non-white young adults. Although rates for non-white young adults have also decreased, they have not decreased at the same rate. The blog below by criminal justice researcher Roger Grimshaw, unpicks what might be behind those disparities and highlights the need for further research.

Roger Grimshaw on the implications of a new study highlighting the long term reduction in young adult prosecutions.

New findings today from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester have highlighted long term trends in court appearances for young adults. ‘Young adults in court: shrinking numbers and increasing disparities’, as the title suggests, shows young adults have become far less likely to appear in court over the previous decade. However, the data imply that prejudice against minorities has led to unequal rates of court appearances and custody for non-white young adults.

This concise study presents tantalizing opportunities for further exploration of the factors behind the changes. It is therefore worth rehearsing the main points in some detail before reflecting on their significance.

A decade of data

In England and Wales, the rate of court appearances among young adults (aged 18–24) fell by three quarters, from 32 court appearances per thousand young adults in 2007–08 to 8 per thousand in 2018–19. This reduction predates the impact of court closures due to COVID restrictions. It also exceeded the decline in court appearances for older age groups. The custody rate in general for young adults has also declined but remains relatively high -twice as high as for those over 24. The drops have occurred across a range of offences, including theft, burglary, violent and sexual offences, and criminal damage. Significantly the proportion of appearances for drug-related offences has increased.

The broad trends are echoed in figures published by the Youth Justice Board which reports that the number of occasions when young adults (aged 18-20) were sentenced decreased by 58 per cent between 2010 and 2020; however, the Board’s figures do not take account of a significant fluctuation in population, which the current study usefully addresses.

The data in the new study also indicate different – and harsher – treatment of minorities by police and courts.

By 2017–18, the rate for ‘white’ young adults had fallen to 11 court appearances per thousand – a reduction of 63 per cent. However, the rate among ‘non-white’ young adults stood at 22 court appearances per thousand – a reduction of 46 per cent but still much higher than for ‘white’ young adults. Custody rates also differed: the rate of immediate custody for ‘white’ young adults declined by 62 per cent, whereas for ‘non-white’ young adults it fell by 53 per cent.

Possible factors

The scope of the changes indicate that something important has been going on – but what? For some, it might be tempting to speculate about a new generational morality, but according to the researchers, crime has not fallen proportionally. The likelier explanations are institutional.

In assessing general contextual factors, it will be worth looking at the impact of court closures, and a reduction in police numbers. In particular, when annual recorded crimes are considered, the rates of charging/summons have declined substantially over the last seven years.

Moreover, the study shows significant geographical differences. The Metropolitan Police area showed relatively less decline, leading to it having the highest current rate of court appearances by young adults.

To shed more light on the key generational difference, the authors’ hunch is to explore the long-term effects of earlier criminal justice processing on young adult outcomes.

Here we should examine, first of all, what has happened to the recent cohorts which have experienced a systematic fall in interventions and a rise in diversionary practices. Long term reductions in the numbers of first time entrants to criminal justice have been dramatic: the rate per 100,000 of the 10–17 year-old population was 1,929 in the 12 months to the end of June 2007 and 484 to the end of June 2013. The introduction of Community Resolutions and triage systems may have played some part in these trends. However, ominously, the proportion of first time entrants who were categorised as ‘black’ rose over the same period.

Steady declines in sanctions have occurred over the recent decade, and in the year ending March 2020, 82 per cent fewer children received a caution or sentence than in the year ending March 2010.

In broad terms, the historical patterns of first time entrants and sanctions form a plausible starting point for understanding the changes in court appearances observed among young adults.

Discrimination

A crucial element in the apparent prejudice directed at ‘non-white’ young men is likely to be broad-brush attributions – open or tacit – of dangerousness. Our study of homicide prosecutions also confirmed the enduring salience of group prosecutions brought against young black men.

The rhetoric of ‘gangs’ casts a wide net of association, inflating the seriousness of any charge or court appearance. The growing role of drug offences in court proceedings involving young adults may reflect the stereotyping of a generation of young black men allegedly under the sway of a violent drug market.

It is vital that the police, the CPS and the courts develop clear and rigorous policies which enable them to weigh the available case information fairly and impartially, dismantling both ‘postcode’ and racial stereotypes.

Institutional influences

Though it is too soon to be certain, any specific changes in policy towards young adults that may have occurred seem to have been over-ridden by a confluence of institutional factors operating at a system level.

The long term effects of reduction in youth justice intervention must be thoroughly explored in future research and translated into policy analysis. Unrelenting pressure is required if the emerging lessons are to be equally applied to minorities currently denied them by discriminatory assumptions and practices.

Authors Nathan Hughes and Todd Hartman have succeeded in delivering a data analysis which is truly informative and timely, carving out many important future channels for further research. Their recommendations on data recording and policy issues should be heeded by all who care about a better criminal justice system.

With acknowledgement and thanks to the Barrow Cadbury Trust for supporting this comment piece. The views are the author’s own.

Young adults in court: shrinking numbers and increasing disparities

Read the full report

HMPPS Young Adult Awareness Week took place 7-13 February 2022. In this blog, which is cross-posted from Insights website, Clare Wilson and Jemma Waterworth explain the work that has been progressed to improve how young adults transition between youth and adult custody, and between youth offending and adult probation services. 

The transition from the youth to adult justice system is a challenging time for young adults. By blowing out the candles on the birthday cake at 18, individuals are suddenly perceived and treated as adults, with the child-friendly ethos and services available to them as adolescents, often abruptly coming to an end.

Community Transition

The unification of Probation Services created an opportunity to improve young adults’ experience of the transition between Youth Offending Services (YOS) and adult probation services.  In response, the Probation Reform Programme has been exploring how we can better address the particular needs of those who move between the two services.

In September 2021, London Probation region won The Butler Trust’s Kathy Biggar trophy for its locally developed ‘Transition Programme’ as an example of excellent local innovation.  With the support of the Probation Reform Programme, it has now been developed for national roll out, and is being treated to a design refresh to align it with other resources that support Probation Practitioners in their work.

The programme will be renamed ‘Next Steps’ and will be used by secondees in the YOS and receiving probation practitioners to ensure that young adults understand and engage with transition, alongside the support of families, carers and other key professionals. Delivered through a series of modules, it demystifies probation supervision for the young adult and ensures that timely information is exchanged between the two services so that the sentence plan is delivered uninterrupted.  It encourages practitioners to move away from treating transition as a purely procedural task and provides practical exercises that support relationship-building and engagement.

Custody

The transition of a young person from the Youth Custody Service (YCS) into the adult prison estate can be a critical period in the young person’s journey through custody. It is imperative that this is carefully planned, is focused on the young person, meets their needs and takes place in a collaborative and multi-disciplinary way with the young person at the centre of it.

Through enhanced partnership work, a centrally managed model has been developed to improve the process for placing children into the adult estate with a person-centred and consistently applied approach, to ensure that the specific needs of the individuals are met.

The new process will improve the sharing of information between the youth and adult estate to ensure more streamlined and comprehensive sentence and care planning, thereby providing a more smooth transition.

It aims to improve the experience of all young people who will be in custody beyond the age of 18 and create a consistent and transparent process that will meet the specific needs required for each individual. The new process will include the views of the child and their family/support person in decisions that are made about their future and increase awareness for staff involved in all stages of transition, of the specific needs of this age group.

The transitions guidance along with the National Probation Service Management of Young Adults Policy Framework will be available from 7 February 2022.

Leroy Logan MBE, anti-racist campaigner, former Met superintendent, and a founding member of the Black Police Association, has been appointed as Chair of Transition to Adulthood (T2A).

Transition to Adulthood (T2A) is a Barrow Cadbury Trust programme advocating for a criminal justice system that takes a distinct approach to policy and practice for young adults (18-25 year olds). The criminal justice system regards all people over 18 year olds as adults.  T2A argues it’s not as simple as this.  Our research, as well as evidence from academic institutions and from government bodies, along with the insights from criminal justice practitioners, shows that between 18 and 25 the brain is still developing.  This can show itself as irresponsible and unpredictable behaviour which may lead to criminal justice interventions.  T2A is working with sentencers, criminal justice practitioners, and policy makers to make sure this evidence is taken into account when services are designed and decisions made impact on young adult in the justice system

The prison population is made up of a disproportionate number of young adults.  At the last census they made up 9.4% of the general population but 16% of the prison population, 23% of those on the most basic regime, as well as young adults making up over 30% of police cases.

On taking up the role Leroy Logan said:

“The causes of crime have always been overlooked by a ‘tough on crime’ approach. I believe my new role with T2A is a way of highlighting the challenges young adults face that may lead them to offend or repeat offend. All of these factors along with an individual’s maturity should be taken into consideration when the courts sentence an individual. I look forward to working with everyone on the T2A team and the T2A partner organisations”.

Welcoming him as Chair of the campaign, Sara Llewellin, CEO of Barrow Cadbury Trust said:  “When Leroy Logan said he would take up the role of chair we were absolutely delighted to have someone so committed to reforming the criminal justice system and challenging inequality, particularly racism.  His 30 years’ experience in the Met Police advancing policing (recognised by an MBE in 2000), and his work on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry will help to drive the T2A campaign to the next level, increasing traction and profile.  We are very much looking forward to working with Leroy and his team to accelerate change for young adults in the CJS”.

Some people may already know that Joyce Moseley’s tenure as Chair of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) after nine years in post has now come to an end. The Alliance and The Barrow Cadbury Trust would like to thank Joyce for her work supporting T2A and dedication she has shown to its work over the years.

 We can share the news that Leroy Logan MBE will be taking over. The experience he brings from his time in policing and founding a leading youth charity will be valuable to advancing the work of T2A. Leroy will be talking more about taking up this appointment in early 2022.

 But first let us hear from Joyce Moseley OBE, outgoing Chair, and former chief executive of Catch 22. She talks to Laurie Hunte, Criminal Justice programme manager at Barrow Cadbury Trust about how she was drawn to working with young people and her time as T2A Chair.

When did you become chair of T2A?

I have been chair for nine years beginning in 2012.

 What attracted you to the role?  What motivated your interest in criminal justice and young adults?

Where to start! The interest in young adults grew out of many years’ involvement with youth justice. As a social worker from 1968 onwards I was drawn to working with young offenders and their families. Labelling theory was strong and it did seem to me nonsensical how young people were being stigmatised for years to come for the most minor offences when it was plain to see that their difficult life circumstances were the things needing attention.

Later as a Director of Social Services I helped promote the needs of care leavers as more and more research showed how they fared badly in later life. This led to the Leaving Care Act which for the first time meant help and support could be given to those over 18 to help with the transition into adulthood.

But I did reflect that when I was a young social worker care leavers were not seen ‘as a problem’. Why? What had changed? Although similar problems probably befell them in later life the act of leaving care did not present problems – there were plenty of jobs for 16 year olds, renting a room was not difficult, the army used to recruit many care leavers and there did seem to be more community based social support networks (or is that rose tinted glasses?).

So society, the economy, support infrastructure, family structures all changed in the 70, 80 and 90s making the transition to adulthood that much more difficult for the kinds of young people finding themselves in the criminal justice system. Not so of course for those going onto higher education where student accommodation, welfare support, financial and social support was still strong. No one expected students to ‘behave like adults’.

In the late 90’s I became one of the founding members of the newly established Youth Justice Board. Having been a Director of Social Services I knew what little focus there was on young offenders in local authorities generally  – elected members’ interest and therefore budgets did not naturally fall on young offenders. So whilst it was controversial to split them off from the social welfare system and put them more firmly into the CJS it did bring a research, practice and policy focus on them and their needs which had not been so strong before.

What was your work and other experience leading up to that and what was the relevance of it to chairing T2A?

As well as social work training and management of social services I also trained as a community worker and undertook an MSc in Social Research. During my stint at the YJB I made a move into the voluntary sector and I following my interest in youth justice and became the CEO of the Royal Philanthropic Society. RPS had been the organisation that set up the first residential treatment centre for young offenders in 1832! Reading their records is such an eye opener – attitudes towards and understanding of the young people was often more caring and thoughtful than one sees today. RPS merged with the Rainer Foundation which had started the Probation Service in the second decade of the 20^th century eventually  becoming Rainer. Then there was a merger with Crime Concern, the charity that had developed much of the thinking around community safety, and Catch 22 was born where young adults were the central focus of the work.

RPS had a strong relationship with various European organisations that had shared the same philosophy back in the mid 19 century. King’s School, Canterbury, led by Rainer, and funded by ESF. In the early 2000s a European conference was held at Kings School, Canterbury, led by Rainer and funded by ESF, focused on young adults. We were very conscious of lagging behind in our thinking on this age group. Many of our European partners had both welfare and criminal justice systems that did not have the rigid dividing line at 18 that the UK had, enabling them to support young adults in those crucial years when, as we know now, they are still developing many of their cognitive skills. There was an important supporter of this conference – no other than Barrow Cadbury Trust. This proved to be the early beginnings of what became T2A in 2008.

One other influence was my time as a board director of the Tavistock Clinic NHS Foundation Trust known for its therapeutic approach to mental health. An adolescent department had been established back in the 1920’s. Adolescence had always been defined by the Tavistock as up to 25 for treatment purposes. They were early adopters of a  psychotherapeutic lens that regarded becoming an adult as a developmental process, something we now have neurological research to back up.

 Did you always know you wanted to work in this field?  If so why?

I’ve always been amazed when people say, ‘I have always known I wanted to be X or Y’. How did they know that? I have tended to fall into things without much planning! Getting into university was more luck than judgment and doing sociology at London was more to do with not having a modern language O level than much else. And what did one do with a sociology degree in those days – became a social worker to change the world!

So, no I did not have a plan although some fairly turbulent teenage years might have led me to respect and empathise with the young people I have worked with over the years. The difference for me was having a strong loving family and a good education.

Going up the management ladder in social services there were some good role models who encouraged me. There were also those moments when I realised that I could do jobs as well if not better than my colleagues (mainly male!) who were going for the promotions.

 What was the situation like at T2A when you joined? I.e. what was going on politically and policy wise and in the VCS criminal justice sector?

It is a trip down memory lane to look back at my early Alliance meeting notes. Take December 2012 – Chris Grayling was promoting ‘swift and sure justice’, the government said all community orders had to include a ‘punitive element’ and austerity was starting to bite. On a more positive note, Sadiq Khan then shadow justice minister spoke at the YJB convention saying he wanted to look at the merits and cost of the youth offending services having an 18+ remit. The ‘what if’ approach to history!

At T2A we launched the T2A Pathway which has acted as the backbone of the work and I think is still worth using as a reference point.

For the VCS austerity hadn’t quite hit. The Big Society ideology saved them for a while but as cuts hit local authorities the knock on to voluntary organisations really started to bite. Social Impact Bonds were all the rage.

It was wonderful to be working with an organisation such at BCT that committed their investments for the long term and believed so strongly in the voluntary sector. That really gave meaning and succour to the Alliance, I think.

What do you feel has been the greatest achievement of T2A in your time as chair?

Can chairs ever claim achievements? I like to think that in the early days the many discussions/debates with Max Rutherford, (the former CJ Programme Manager at BCT), helped with the thinking that went into the T2A programme. I like to think I fronted some of the public facing events well – party conference sessions, conference chairing, speaking to the Select Committee, meetings with ministers and officials. And of course chairing the Alliance meetings – making people feel welcome, asking reasonable questions when needed, thanking guests, trying to politely curtail some lengthy interventions, reading the moods of the meeting and finishing on time. I’m only sad that face to face meetings didn’t return on my watch. But who knows they might never!

 What do you think the future holds for the treatment of young adults in the CJS?

A Conservative MP told me recently not to be too pessimistic about the way things are going. A bit difficult given recent legislation, the massive cuts and yet more structural change as well as an underlying lack of care for the young adults we work with especially those from diverse backgrounds whose treatment by the CJS is shaming.

I think the MP said what he did knowing that ‘things change’ especially in politics, so one can only hope. And despite the politics there are many good things happening – the T2A message has never been stronger and heard by so many people. To make lasting and embedded change we need to make it conceivable that young adults in the CJS and all policy areas are seen as a distinct group with specific requirements. And that doing so makes economic as well as moral sense.

Finally, what do you think you’ll miss most about being chair of T2A?

Being a part of something so right – T2A is a coherent set of policy thinking and policy ambition, backed by research and evidence backed practice.

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Through the Howard League’s legal and participation work, it has identified that the sentencing of young adults is a pivotal stage that is little understood but has life-changing consequences.

As part of its work with T2A the Howard League is exploring this area in depth and has produced a number of publications and short films to embed the growing consensus that young adults require a distinct approach within the CJS.

The films provide practitioners, lawyers and sentencers with authoritative information on the distinct needs and characteristics of young adults in the criminal justice system. Watch the short films.

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

A substantial and growing evidence base has found that young adults aged 18-25 are a distinct group, because they are still maturing. Interrupting a young adult’s development with a period in custody should only be made as a last resort.  

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.  

Specific data is not available about the extent to which young adults remanded to custody subsequently receive a custodial sentence but in the case of children under 18 and women of all ages, most do not.  

Although there has been a decline in the numbers of young adults remanded in custody, the report argues there is scope for reducing them yet further. 

Recent research by Ed Cape and Tom Smith found that “nearly half of those people who are kept in custody at some stage before their trial or sentence were either found not guilty, or if found guilty, were given a non-custodial sentence”.  

In the context of a growing court backlog and highly restricted regimes in prisons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report’s author, Rob Allen, argues “it is particularly timely to consider the case for reform of remand arrangements”. ‘Extended Custody Time Limits’ introduced in September 2020 to manage court delays, threaten to leave thousands of people on remand in custody for longer than usual.  Young adults are spending longer in custody as a result of these court backlogs which were already problematic prior to the pandemic.   

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. 

If young adults aren’t remanded in custody the report looks at what alternatives are available, particularly young women, and defendants with mental health problems. 

Finally it looks at what measures might be taken to improve the distinctiveness of remand arrangements for 18-25 year olds?  Read ‘Young Adults on Remand’. 

T2A (Transition to Adulthood) welcomes the publication of this  important short thematic report on Outcomes for Young Adults in Custody which makes it clear that there is a lack of a clear strategy for young adults in custody, resulting in lost opportunities and poor outcomes. Although some individuals working in the prison system are highly motivated, their efforts are hampered by the lack of a systematic approach, integrated strategy and limited resources for this age group. 

The Chief Inspector’s report endorses many of the key findings and recommendations of a decade of T2A research and other independent reviews of how this age group are dealt with in prisons. We have long-advocated for distinct prison estate accommodation for this age group — separate from the over 25s — including well-tailored, developmentally-appropriate regimes that addresses the distinct needs – and opportunities for change – presented by young adults.  Outcomes for young adults have been poor for a considerable time and will be exacerbated by the current pandemic. T2A has been particularly concerned about outcomes for people of colour, people identifying as gypsy, traveller and Roma, and care experienced young people in and following custody. A more effective approach would understand the experiences of these people as well as young adults more generally and build on the numerous examples of effective practice undertaken in other jurisdictions in the UK and internationally. 

The Government can do more to stop these young people from becoming lifelong criminals who undermine our public safety. It is imperative that this evidence and the volume of credible voices calling for change are reflected in the Sentencing Bill when it comes before Parliament, otherwise an ‘open goal’ opportunity to reduce reoffending and be smarter about how we treat this group will be missed. 

Joyce Moseley, Chair of T2A said: “It is frustrating that despite practitioner, academic, government and Inspectorate findings, we have seen so little progress for young adults at a time when the  criminal justice system so needs an evidence-based strategy to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.  If the Government fails to act on yet one more damning report it will be another indictment of its failure to respond to the needs of a lost generation of young people, locking them into a cycle of crime and undermining public safety. 

A new report by the Youth Justice Legal Centre (YJLC), part of Just for Kids Law, reveals that severe delays in the criminal justice system are leaving children, families and victims in limbo, resulting in serious consequences for those who turn 18.

System delay is the main explanation for why children turn 18 years old between the commission of an offence and prosecution.  COVID-19 has exacerbated delays throughout the criminal justice system which is having a significant impact on children approaching their 18th birthday.

The most recent official data shows that 1,400 offences a year are committed by children who turn 18 prior to conviction but it is believed this is a significant underestimate and the number is expected to rise. Turning 18 prior to prosecution means the young people have their cases heard in adult courts and lose the opportunity to benefit from the youth justice system. This often happens because it can take months or sometimes years for the police or the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to make a charging decision. There are currently no fast-track options for children, including those approaching their 18th birthday.

The outcomes for children who turn 18  are vastly different to those of their peers who are prosecuted as children. The damaging consequences include losing access to youth diversion schemes, losing anonymity during court proceedings, only being eligible for adult sentences including much longer rehabilitation periods which reduce employment prospects and prevent people from moving on with their lives.

Just for Kids Law is calling for timely justice for those who commit offences as children. The report, Timely Justice: Turning 18, recommends that where this is not possible the same sentencing framework should be applied to all those who offend in childhood. It also recommends  a time limit of three months during which a child can be subject to release under investigation. And the report identifies an urgent need to collect and regularly publish accurate data on children who are released under investigation and those who commit offences but turn 18 prior to conviction.

The Youth Justice Legal Centre has also developed a legal guide to help lawyers navigate the different rules, regimes and principles which apply to those turning 18 in the criminal justice system.

Enver Solomon, Chief Executive at Just for Kids Law,  said:
‘It is a travesty of justice  that due to unnecessary delays in the criminal justice system young people who have offended in childhood are not able to benefit from legal protections which exist for those who break the law as children. As a result of the pandemic and court closures the situation is much worse with yet more delays and even more children being convicted as adults. Timely justice is crucial for children, families and victims. Young adults who committed offences as children must be given the opportunity to build meaningful futures and be treated fairly.’