Just for Kids Law have today launched a report on ending the overnight detention of children. The report provides the latest available data on overnight detention, highlighting that this is still a significant issue with tens of thousands of children still held overnight each year. The report sets out several key recommendations to bring about reform on both a policy and practical level.
To launch the report, Just for Kids Law held an online briefing to Parliamentarians, police representatives, and youth justice campaigners.
Details
The report found that despite an overall decrease in the number of children detained in police custody overnight in recent years (in line with the reduction in child arrests and numbers of first-time entrants to the youth justice system), serious failures to safeguard children are still taking place:
- In 2019, at least 21,369 children were detained overnight in police custody either pre- or post-charge, a third of all those arrested.
- 244 children aged 12 and under were held overnight and 9 children held overnight were just 10 years of age. As only a minority of forces provided data for the youngest children, the actual figure is likely to be higher.
- In one case in 2021, a 16-year-old boy was detained for 5 days following a warrant being issued for his arrest.
- Black children are disproportionately detained in police custody overnight - 21.7% (4,193), with a total of 15% (2,893) from other minority ethnic backgrounds.
The report sets out several key recommendations including:
- Detention in police custody to be used only as a last resort with a much-reduced time limit to how long a child can be detained in police custody to be set into legislation
- A review of the collection, collation and publication of data relating to the overnight detention of children in police custody, both pre and post charge, to ensure adequate oversight and scrutiny of this serious breach of children’s rights
- A review of the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice on arrest and detention to ensure that police officers understand that children should only be detained as a matter of last resort and for the shortest possible time
- The development of a National Police Chief’s Council strategy to ensure that police detention is only used as a matter of last resort and for the shortest possible time for all children
- All police forces and local authorities to sign up to and fully implement the Home Office Concordat on Children in Custody and clearly set out how they will reduce the number of children who are detained overnight in police custody each year, post charge
- Adequate funding for the provision of secure accommodation and non-secure local authority accommodation across the country to enable local authorities to meet their duties under both section 38(6) of PACE and 21(2)(b) of the Children Act 1989
Commentary
This report forcefully sets out the challenges faced in ending the overnight detention of children in police custody both pre and post charge. Children are still too often unnecessarily arrested and held for long periods of time. Much work is still needed to ensure children are only held in police custody as a matter of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time.
The briefing launch heard from a number of speakers including Dr Miranda Bevan following her recent study into the police custody process as a whole from the perspective of the child suspect entitled: The pains of police custody for children: a recipe for injustice and exclusion? . Dr Bevan powerfully revealed the distress experienced by children in police custody and the lack of a child rights centred approach in decision-making at the police station.
The report also highlighted the importance of legal representation, particularly those with expertise of working with children, in tackling the issue of overnight detention of children in police custody and ensuring that the rights and interests of children are duly protected. Legal representatives should make representations at the earliest possible opportunity for the child to be diverted away from custody, scrutinise and challenge a request for secure accommodation, and ensure the local authority is complying with its legal duties where local authority accommodation has been requested.