The History of Young Offenders.
1792
- The Royal Philanthropic Society opens a centre
in London to take convicted children who might otherwise be transported abroad.
In 1797 it starts supporting children after they leave. This is thought to be the first ever resettlement scheme.
1823- Prison ships are introduced to house some young offenders –the first government sponsored institutions to separate young offenders from adult offenders. They were criticised for being harsh and cruel, the last of these closed in 1846.
1838- Parkhurst Prison opens in the Isle of Wight as the first land-based penal institution run by the state exclusively for juveniles.
1847-Juvenile Offenders Act – The first legislation to distinguish between adults and children for justice purposes. It allowed children under 14 to be tried for some lesser offences summarily in a magistrates’ court.
1854- Youthful Offenders Act allows courts to sentence children under 16 to time in a reformatory for between two and five years as an alternative to prison – but they must serve an initial 14 days in prison.
1893- Reformatory Schools Act gives courts the option of sending children to reformatories without the initial two weeks in prison.
1901- Youthful Offenders Act permits remand homes for children who are committed for trial. Young people may be held in remand homes or in workhouses instead of being kept in adult prisons.
1902- The first borstal institution for young males opens on an experimental basis near Rochester in Kent. Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise introduces a strict regime based on physical drill, training and education.
1908- Children Act is established. A separate juvenile court was established for the first time dealing with both crime and welfare issues; custody for children below 14 was abolished in the juvenile court; and new short-term sentences were introduced for detention in police-run remand homes.
1933- Children and Young Persons Act requires courts to have regard to a child’s welfare, raises the age of criminal responsibility to eight years old, and abolishes the death penalty for the under 18s.
1952-Detention Centres are opened, where sentences of up to three months are intended as a ‘short, sharp, shock’ for 14 to 20 yr olds. The 1948 Act introduced them to replace court-imposed corporal punishment.
1961-Ingelby Report recommends raising the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12. Set up in 1956, the Committee emphasises local authority welfare, early intervention and support for the family.
1963-Children and Young Persons Act raises the age of criminal responsibility to 10. Responding to the Ingleby Report, it also requires local authorities to undertake preventative work with children and families at risk of offending.
1969- Children and Young Persons Act introduces supervision orders and care orders. Secure units and approved schools are combined into local authority community homes. Its raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 is never implemented.
1985 ~ United Nations “Beijing Rules” (UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice) emphasise that children’s detention should only be a last resort. In 1990, “Riyadh Guidelines” set standards for care in juvenile justice.
1988 ~ Criminal Justice Act restricts the use of custody for children and provides specified activities as a statutory alternative to custody. Youth custody centres and detention centres combine to form young offender institutions.
1989 ~ UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is published. Article 3 states that children’s best interests should always be a primary consideration, and Article 37 limits custody to the shortest possible time.
1991 ~ Criminal Justice Act replaces juvenile courts with youth courts and includes 17 year olds for the first time. The age that the youth court can impose custody is raised from 14 to 15, and curfew orders are introduced for the over 16s.
1993 ~ Criminal Justice Act signals a punitive turn for the justice system. It allows more scope for courts to impose tougher sentences, taking into account offender history and offences committed while on bail.
1994 ~ Criminal Justice and Public Order Act increases the offences range referred to the Crown Court and doubles the length of the detention period available. Youth courts can use new custodial sentences for 12-14 year old persistent offenders.
1998 ~ The first secure training centre for 12 to 14 year olds opens in Kent, implementing the 1994 Act’s secure training order. Children serve half their sentence in custody and half in the community, reemphasising resettlement.
1998 ~ Crime and Disorder Act introduces the principal aim for youth justice as being the prevention of offending. It establishes multi-agency youth offending teams and a range of orders. “Doli incapax” for children under 14 is abolished.
1998 ~ Youth Justice Board is established following the Crime and Disorder Act. The new body is responsible for monitoring and promoting good practice. In April 2000 it also takes responsibility for commissioning custodial places.
1999 ~ Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act creates referral orders, where first-time offenders pleading guilty are diverted from courts to lay panels. Contracts agreed with offenders emphasise restorative justice. They are available nationwide in 2002.
1999 ~ Anti-social behaviour orders are introduced following the 1998 Act. These civil court orders are disproportionately received by children, imposing restrictions for sub-criminal behaviour. Breaching is a criminal offence punishable by custody.
2000 ~ First set of national standards specific to youth justice is introduced by the Youth Justice Board, defining the minimum required level of service provision from agencies. Funding is conditional on related key performance targets.
2000 ~ Detention and training order replaces detention in a young offender institution and the secure training order. Sentences of four to 24 months are served half in detention and half on community licence, requiring youth offending team co-ordinated resettlement support.
2001 ~ Intensive supervision and surveillance programme is piloted as a rigorous community alternative to custody for persistent offenders. Rolled out in 2003, an intensive supervision and surveillance programme can be a condition of bail, an order or a post-custody licence condition.
2002 ~ Presumption of early release is introduced for children serving detention and training orders (except in certain circumstances), subject to an electronically monitored curfew. Release one or two months early means longer community licence resettlement.
2003 ~ Criminal Justice Act introduces indeterminate and extended custodial sentences for public protection. It stipulates that all previous convictions should be treated as aggravating unless it is unreasonable to treat them as such.
2004 ~ Children Act extends safeguarding duties to criminal justice agencies. It stipulates greater co-operation between youth offending teams and child protection services, and underlines the safeguarding duties of custodial institutions.
2006 ~ Youth Crime Action Plan is published, with a target of reducing first-time entrants to the youth justice system by a fifth by 2020. The government pledges almost £100 million to fund youth crime reduction initiatives.
2008 ~ Statutory alternatives to custody are also introduced by the Act, by attaching intensive supervision and surveillance or intensive fostering to a youth rehabilitation order. Courts must justify not imposing such an alternative where they sentence a child to custody.
2012 ~ Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act devolves remand custody costs to local authorities. It also allows courts to conditionally discharge children, allows repeated referral orders and restricts the scope of public protection sentences.
2013 ~ Transforming Youth Custody proposes secure colleges for 12-17 year olds to replace existing custody, with the first to open in 2017. The government’s response to consultation emphasises a commitment to improving partnership working in resettlement.
2014 ~ Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act replaces anti-social behaviour orders with injunctions for the prevention of nuisance and annoyance (civil) and criminal behaviour orders. In addition to restrictions, the new orders allow courts to impose activity requirements.
1823- Prison ships are introduced to house some young offenders –the first government sponsored institutions to separate young offenders from adult offenders. They were criticised for being harsh and cruel, the last of these closed in 1846.
1838- Parkhurst Prison opens in the Isle of Wight as the first land-based penal institution run by the state exclusively for juveniles.
1847-Juvenile Offenders Act – The first legislation to distinguish between adults and children for justice purposes. It allowed children under 14 to be tried for some lesser offences summarily in a magistrates’ court.
1854- Youthful Offenders Act allows courts to sentence children under 16 to time in a reformatory for between two and five years as an alternative to prison – but they must serve an initial 14 days in prison.
1893- Reformatory Schools Act gives courts the option of sending children to reformatories without the initial two weeks in prison.
1901- Youthful Offenders Act permits remand homes for children who are committed for trial. Young people may be held in remand homes or in workhouses instead of being kept in adult prisons.
1902- The first borstal institution for young males opens on an experimental basis near Rochester in Kent. Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise introduces a strict regime based on physical drill, training and education.
1908- Children Act is established. A separate juvenile court was established for the first time dealing with both crime and welfare issues; custody for children below 14 was abolished in the juvenile court; and new short-term sentences were introduced for detention in police-run remand homes.
1933- Children and Young Persons Act requires courts to have regard to a child’s welfare, raises the age of criminal responsibility to eight years old, and abolishes the death penalty for the under 18s.
1952-Detention Centres are opened, where sentences of up to three months are intended as a ‘short, sharp, shock’ for 14 to 20 yr olds. The 1948 Act introduced them to replace court-imposed corporal punishment.
1961-Ingelby Report recommends raising the age of criminal responsibility from 8 to 12. Set up in 1956, the Committee emphasises local authority welfare, early intervention and support for the family.
1963-Children and Young Persons Act raises the age of criminal responsibility to 10. Responding to the Ingleby Report, it also requires local authorities to undertake preventative work with children and families at risk of offending.
1969- Children and Young Persons Act introduces supervision orders and care orders. Secure units and approved schools are combined into local authority community homes. Its raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 is never implemented.
1985 ~ United Nations “Beijing Rules” (UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice) emphasise that children’s detention should only be a last resort. In 1990, “Riyadh Guidelines” set standards for care in juvenile justice.
1988 ~ Criminal Justice Act restricts the use of custody for children and provides specified activities as a statutory alternative to custody. Youth custody centres and detention centres combine to form young offender institutions.
1989 ~ UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is published. Article 3 states that children’s best interests should always be a primary consideration, and Article 37 limits custody to the shortest possible time.
1991 ~ Criminal Justice Act replaces juvenile courts with youth courts and includes 17 year olds for the first time. The age that the youth court can impose custody is raised from 14 to 15, and curfew orders are introduced for the over 16s.
1993 ~ Criminal Justice Act signals a punitive turn for the justice system. It allows more scope for courts to impose tougher sentences, taking into account offender history and offences committed while on bail.
1994 ~ Criminal Justice and Public Order Act increases the offences range referred to the Crown Court and doubles the length of the detention period available. Youth courts can use new custodial sentences for 12-14 year old persistent offenders.
1998 ~ The first secure training centre for 12 to 14 year olds opens in Kent, implementing the 1994 Act’s secure training order. Children serve half their sentence in custody and half in the community, reemphasising resettlement.
1998 ~ Crime and Disorder Act introduces the principal aim for youth justice as being the prevention of offending. It establishes multi-agency youth offending teams and a range of orders. “Doli incapax” for children under 14 is abolished.
1998 ~ Youth Justice Board is established following the Crime and Disorder Act. The new body is responsible for monitoring and promoting good practice. In April 2000 it also takes responsibility for commissioning custodial places.
1999 ~ Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act creates referral orders, where first-time offenders pleading guilty are diverted from courts to lay panels. Contracts agreed with offenders emphasise restorative justice. They are available nationwide in 2002.
1999 ~ Anti-social behaviour orders are introduced following the 1998 Act. These civil court orders are disproportionately received by children, imposing restrictions for sub-criminal behaviour. Breaching is a criminal offence punishable by custody.
2000 ~ First set of national standards specific to youth justice is introduced by the Youth Justice Board, defining the minimum required level of service provision from agencies. Funding is conditional on related key performance targets.
2000 ~ Detention and training order replaces detention in a young offender institution and the secure training order. Sentences of four to 24 months are served half in detention and half on community licence, requiring youth offending team co-ordinated resettlement support.
2001 ~ Intensive supervision and surveillance programme is piloted as a rigorous community alternative to custody for persistent offenders. Rolled out in 2003, an intensive supervision and surveillance programme can be a condition of bail, an order or a post-custody licence condition.
2002 ~ Presumption of early release is introduced for children serving detention and training orders (except in certain circumstances), subject to an electronically monitored curfew. Release one or two months early means longer community licence resettlement.
2003 ~ Criminal Justice Act introduces indeterminate and extended custodial sentences for public protection. It stipulates that all previous convictions should be treated as aggravating unless it is unreasonable to treat them as such.
2004 ~ Children Act extends safeguarding duties to criminal justice agencies. It stipulates greater co-operation between youth offending teams and child protection services, and underlines the safeguarding duties of custodial institutions.
2006 ~ Youth Crime Action Plan is published, with a target of reducing first-time entrants to the youth justice system by a fifth by 2020. The government pledges almost £100 million to fund youth crime reduction initiatives.
2008 ~ Statutory alternatives to custody are also introduced by the Act, by attaching intensive supervision and surveillance or intensive fostering to a youth rehabilitation order. Courts must justify not imposing such an alternative where they sentence a child to custody.
2012 ~ Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act devolves remand custody costs to local authorities. It also allows courts to conditionally discharge children, allows repeated referral orders and restricts the scope of public protection sentences.
2013 ~ Transforming Youth Custody proposes secure colleges for 12-17 year olds to replace existing custody, with the first to open in 2017. The government’s response to consultation emphasises a commitment to improving partnership working in resettlement.
2014 ~ Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act replaces anti-social behaviour orders with injunctions for the prevention of nuisance and annoyance (civil) and criminal behaviour orders. In addition to restrictions, the new orders allow courts to impose activity requirements.