Search

In 2010, 260 children entered secure accommodation. Of these, 51 per cent were placed because they were on remand or sentenced for committing a serious offence. Thirty seven per cent were placed by social services for their own protection under a child welfare order and the remaining 12 per cent were placed under both categories concurrently. Secure accommodation is therefore used to simultaneously hold children sentenced for punishment with those who are ‘saved’ from tragedy by welfare professionals. This paper highlights findings from an ethnographic study conducted with girls in secure accommodation. The research used participant observations and in-depth interviews to explore girls’ experiences of being secured and found that all thirteen of the girls admitted from local authority care felt that they were perceived as ‘bad kids’—regardless of whether they had committed a crime or not. These feelings were exacerbated by the prominence of case files which followed children between care placements and were described as a source of anxiety and worry for young people. This paper hopes to inspire social work practice to be more inclusive of young people and to be aware of the impact of shrouding the information contained in case files.

In this paper, we provide empirical evidence from a study of Canadian bail hearings that suggests that, unlike new penology predictions, the disciplinary focus of the courts has not been totally displaced by risk reasoning. Our analysis reveals that individualized, moral assessments of accused persons have a strong influence on remand decisions. Accused persons who receive a negative personality assessment by the police are much more likely to be detained than those who receive neutral assessments. Our analysis also reveals that these subjective character evaluations help explain racial differences in the likelihood of pre-trial detention. Furthermore, rather than managing risk', our findings reveal that the detention of accused persons is a rather important resource that the prosecution uses to encourage (or coerce) guilty pleas from accused persons. Those accused who are not held in pre-trial custody, by contrast, are much more likely to have all of their charges withdrawn by the prosecution. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

In 1986 the number of people in prisons per 100,000 of the population was much higher in England and Wales than Australia (93 compared to 70). This difference was not due to differences in crime rates nor the success of the police in apprehending offenders, but to the greater number of people (per capita) in England and Wales received into prison, both on remand and under sentence. Furthermore, in England and Wales, young adults were much more likely to be detained in custody--particularly those sentenced for non-sexual assault, burglary, and property damage.

a period of probation. Each of these offenders was matched with a first offender who appeared in the same court during the same period of time, was remanded at home, and subsequently given a period of probation. The matching was done on age at the time of remand (within one year), and type and number of charges (the same). As groups the offenders were also com parable in length of probation orders: 77 and 79 of those remanded in custody and at home, respectively, were given 12 months probation, the remainders 18 to 24 months. It can be noted, however, that the length of probationary supervision was shown to have no relationship to recidivism for the population in question (Kraus, 1970). At the time of remand the age range of the juveniles was 11 to 17, the mode 16 years. If it is accepted that taking consecutive cases is a good approximation of random sampling, then the sample of remands in custody N=go has distribution-free tolerance limits of 95 per cent, with a confidence probability of 0-99. Procedure

The study reports the findings of an examination of bail decisions in a magistrates' court, which are considered in the light of the major issues of the bail system in recent years. It was found that the role of the police was of less significance than in previous studies and that the basic legal provisions were the dominant factor in many decisions. While it was clear that bail rates have increased over the years it was equally clear that certain features of bail decision-making remain problematic. It is suggested that better system. Not all criminal cases that are brought before a magistrates' court can be disposed of at the first hearing. For example, the prosecution or the defence may require time to prepare their case or the court may require reports on the defendant prior to sentence. These and other matters involve remands and the court has to decide if the remand should be on bail or in custody. The system of bail decision-making has received critical comment1 and some degree of statutory reform (most notably by the Bail Act 1976) in the period since the early 1960s. A major problem has been that the quality of decision-making is suspect. The system does not facilitate informed discretion and consistency in its use. A particular criticism has been that the limited amount of information made available to the courts has mainly been provided by the police and that the courts are too willing to adhere to the police viewpoint. One implication of such a system is that defendants, often unconvicted, may be unnecessarily remanded in custody. Such an injustice can be increased in several ways. First, defendants may be subsequently acquitted or declared unsuitable for a custodial sentence. Secondly, whilst in prison awaiting trial a defendant may find his ability to prepare for trial impaired. Thirdly, defendants remanded in custody are most likely to plead guilty and to receive custodial sentences. Other adverse effects of custody may materalise in relation to a defendant's family, employment and abode. For the penal system unnecessary detentions before trial add to the pressure on prisons. Finally, it is also possible that defendants who would be best remanded in custody are being released on bail to pose a threat to the operation of the criminal justice system and the community generally. In this article the findings of an investigation into the workings of the bail system after the Bail Act 1976 are