About the YJB
Custody
Custody will always be necessary for a small minority of children and young people who offend, because of the seriousness of their offence, the frequency of their offending or the risk that they may pose to the public. However, the YJB wants to do all it can to ensure that it is only used as a last resort, and that it is safe, secure and addresses the causes of offending behaviour.
The YJB has responsibility for:
- purchasing all the places within the secure estate for children and young people
- placing all young people sentenced or remanded to custody
- setting standards and monitoring the performance of each custodial establishment.
We spend around 70% of our budget on providing custodial places. The table below shows how many places in each type of custodial establishment we purchase.
Number of places available within the secure estate (March 2006)
Gender
|
Number of places |
|
YOIs |
STCs |
Secure children’s homes |
|
Male
|
2,730
|
301
|
235, with the opportunity to ‘spot purchase’ additional places
|
|
Female
|
91
|
Our Strategy for the Secure Estate for Children and Young People, published in 2005, sets out the principles we are using to develop the secure estate, and what we plan to do over the next three years to improve it. To find out what progress we have made, read our Update on the Strategy for the Secure Estate for Children and Young People.
One of the key aims outlined in the Strategy for the Secure Estate is the YJB’s commitment to remove all young women under the age of 18 from adult female prisons. We have commissioned five new dedicated Prison Service units for young women, and Rainsbrook and Hassockfield STCs will also have dedicated units soon.
In addition, at Rainsbrook, there will soon be, for the first time in the secure estate for children and young people, a small number of places for pregnant girls, and mothers and their babies. These new units mean that these STCs will be better able to deal with the specific needs of young women, and they also offer greater long-term flexibility in placing girls and young women in custody.
We are also responsible for placing children and young people under 18, sentenced or remanded to custody by the courts, in appropriate secure accommodation. Click to find out more about placing young people in custody.
Finally, we set standards for secure facilities and monitor their performance. To find out more about how we monitor the performance of the secure estate, visit our page on monitoring to read about how we measure each establishment’s performance against the standards we set them and the terms of their contract.