Tag: Custody

The 2020 Regulations extend pre-trial custody time limits in the Crown Court to a maximum of 238 days, with the ultimate intention of easing the backlog of cases in the Crown Court as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, the new limits – which apply to children and adults alike – may serve to unfairly remand innocent individuals in custody.

A review of pain-inducing techniques in the youth secure estate has been published. It sets out 15 recommendations which aim to ensure pain-inducing techniques are only ever used as a last resort and that appropriate mechanisms are in place to govern the use of restraint.

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the impact of the Coronavirus epidemic on provision for prisoners can be a relevant factor when sentencing a defendant.

The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service have introduced the End of Custody Temporary Release Scheme (ECTR) which applies to young offenders. The criteria governing the temporary release of young offenders has been set out in Rule 5A of the Young Offender Institution Rules 2000, 'Coronavirus Restricted Temporary Release'.

In a letter to judges and magistrates, the Youth Justice Legal Centre along with 13 others, have urged courts to exercise extreme caution before remanding and sentencing children to custody during the coronavirus pandemic. The risks, both physical and mental, that children in custody will be exposed to during this time will, in most cases, outweigh the need for custody.

The UK Supreme Court examined whether it is within the scope of parental responsibility to consent to living arrangements for a 16-17 year old child that would amount to a deprivation of liberty under article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The College of Policing briefing is a summary of evidence on factors associated with carrying knives, as well as strategies and interventions to tackle knife crime. It aims to inform decisions about approaches to tackling knife crime.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), have conducted surveys of children detained in Secure Training Centres and Young Offender Institutions.

The Court of Appeal held that holding a 15 year old in solitary confinement for 8 weeks was not a breach of his Article 3 ECHR right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The Home Office has published a concordat on children in custody, preventing the detention of children in police stations following charge. The concordat aims to clarify the legal and statutory duties of the police and local authorities. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 requires the transfer of children who have been charged and denied bail to more appropriate Local Authority accommodation, with a related duty in the Children Act 1989 for Local Authorities to accept these transfers.

R v H [2016] EWCA Crim 2064 The Court of Appeal ruled that a sentencing judge had imposed an excessive sentence on a child, H. This case reinforces the special status of children in the criminal justice process and particularly when they come to be sentenced

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has published its response to the Laming Review on keeping children in care out of trouble.