AYJ Comment: Recent developments in youth justice
Earlier this month, several key youth justice reports were published — the Youth justice statistics 2024–25, the IMB Feltham annual report, and the Government’s response to the Justice Committee’s report ‘Ending the cycle of reoffending’.
The Youth justice statistics show that fewer children are entering the system and fewer are in custody, which is welcome and must be protected. But the Feltham IMB report highlights that for those who are detained, conditions remain unsafe and unacceptable. And the government’s response to the Justice Committee lacks the urgency and transparency needed to address those issues.
We welcome record‑low first‑time entrants and historically low custody numbers; strong evidence that prevention and diversion work when resourced. These gains show what’s possible when support replaces criminalisation. The government’s ambition should now be to reduce numbers even further and ensure that, where children are in contact with the justice system, they are supported in the community unless a child is assessed as posing a serious and continuing risk to the public, and there is genuinely no way of managing that risk in the community.
The urgency of this is underscored by the Feltham IMB report, which follows on from numerous previous reports documenting high violence, prolonged isolation, cancelled education and activities, and the use of PAVA spray on children — all incompatible with a child‑first, trauma‑informed approach. Staffing shortfalls and collapsed resettlement capacity leave children locked in rooms for extended periods and facing release without stable accommodation or planning; more than half of Feltham’s population is on remand, despite most remanded children nationally not receiving a custodial sentence.
On 3 February, AYJ’s Chief Executive, Jess Mullen, spoke to BBC London News about conditions at Feltham.
It is conditions such as these that led the Justice Committee to conclude in its report, Ending the cycle of reoffending – part one: rehabilitation in prisons, that “The Youth Custody Service, and in particular Young Offender Institutions, is clearly not working for children,” and to recommend an action plan on how government intends to manage current conditions across the estate. In response, the Government says “roadmaps” are in place. The lack of transparency surrounding these unpublished roadmaps makes scrutiny impossible. History shows that similar plans produce only temporary improvements in individual YOIs; they cannot deliver systemic change in a model that is inherently beyond reform. In addition, the government has also only partially accepted recommendations for a statutory minimum for time out of room, defaulting to an 8‑hour expectation that is still not consistently delivered across YOIs; and its full review of PAVA won’t report until late 2026. That is not the pace of reform children deserve. YOIs and the last remaining Secure Training Centre (STC) must be closed, and government must set out a clear plan for doing so.
Since these reports were published, government has also published its policy paper, A Modern Youth Justice Service: Foundations Fit for the Future. As we have separately commented on, this acknowledges the inadequate conditions for children in custody and the potential for a further reduction in the youth custody population through improved diversion and a re-examination of the children’s sentencing framework. The paper points to further reforms to be announced in the spring. These must be the bold, ambitious, and fundamental reforms needed to ensure prevention and diversion continue and to set out a clear pathway to reduce the use of custody and close YOIs and STCs.