A LONG WAY FROM HOME
There were 922 children in youth custody as of March 2018. This is how far away they'd been sent from home
CHILDREN are being sent more than 100 miles away from home to serve custodial sentences, despite the government saying they should be sent as close to home as possible.
New Ministry of Justice figures show that 922 children were in youth custody as of March 2018.
More than one in nine of those children - 105 in all - were serving their sentences at least 100 miles away from home.
Official guidelines advise that Youth Justice Boards send young people somewhere “as near to their home as possible”.
This is the first year that figures have been published showing the distance between where youngsters convicted of crimes complete their sentences, and where their families live.
Young criminals generally only receive custodial sentences if their crimes are considered very serious, if they have a past criminal record, or if they are deemed a risk to the public.
It is up to each Youth Justice Board to decide where youngsters should serve their time.
The data shows that in addition to the 105 children in custody 100 miles or more from their home, 79 were between 75 and 99 miles away. A further 123 were between 50 and 74 miles from their home. Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said it was important children serving sentences had access to their families.
And she questioned the need for many of the children serving sentences to be behind bars at all.
She said: “Far too many children are in custody.
“Many children do not need to be sent a way long from home because they do not need to be in custody.
“If a child is in custody, what matters is access and the quality of relationship that they have with their family. “This means being able to speak to them on the phone every day and being able to use Skype regularly, and it means having proper contact with them during visits. “If children have to be physically a long way from home, every effort must be made to enable the quality of their relationship with their family is as good as possible.”
The Ministry of Justice was contacted for comment.