• 1792
• 1823
• 1838
• 1847
• 1854
• 1854
• 1893
• 1901
• 1902
• 1907
• 1908
• 1908
• 1908
• 1933
• 1933
• 1948
• 1952
• 1959
• 1961
• 1963
• 1964
• 1964
• 1967
• 1969
• 1971
• 1982
• 1983
• 1985
• 1988
• 1989
• 1989
• 1991
• 1993
• 1993
• 1994
• 1996
• 1997
• 1998
• 1998
• 1988
• 1999
• 1999
• 2000
• 2000
• 2001
• 2002
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2004
• 2006
• 2008
• 2008
• 2012
• 2013
• 2014

• 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 – possibly the first such resettlement scheme.

• 1823

  Prison ships are introduced to house some young offenders – the first government sponsored institutions to separate young offenders from adults. Criticised for being harsh and cruel, the last of these hulks closes 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. Castigated by prison reformers, the prison is ‘re-roled’ for adults in 1864.

• 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

  Reformatory School Act enables voluntary reformatories to be approved by the Inspector of Prisons. Based on the principles of a Victorian Christian home, reformatories are intended to save troubled children from a fallen life.

• 1854

  Youthful Offenders Act allows courts to sentence children under 16 to a stint 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. The prison element is finally abolished in the Reformatory Schools Act 1899.

• 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.

• 1907

  Probation of Offenders Act allows magistrates to discharge offenders on the condition that they are supervised in the community. Initially, it is principally aimed at replacing punishment for young offenders.

• 1908

  Children Act – Established a separate juvenile court for the first time dealing with both crime and welfare issues; abolished custody for children below 14 in the juvenile court; introduced new short-term sentences for detention in police-run remand homes.

• 1908

  Children Act establishes a separate juvenile court for the first time, dealing with both crime and welfare issues, abolishes custody for children below 14, and now requires the police to provide remand homes.

• 1908

  Prevention of Crime Act rolls out borstals nationally for males aged 16-20 on an indeterminate sentence between one and three years. Release is followed by a supervised licence period of resettlement in the community.

• 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.

• 1933

  Home Office approved schools are also created by the Children and Young Persons Act. Replacing both reformatories and industrial schools, the voluntary units house both children deemed criminal and those beyond parental control.

• 1948

  Criminal Justice Act abolishes committal to adult prisons for children under 17 years, but allows other types of custody. Non-custodial Attendance Centres are introduced for children over 12 to be sent for specified daytime activities.

• 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.

• 1959

  Rioting at Carlton Approved School involving staff being stoned and mass absconding damages public confidence in Approved Schools. The resulting inquiry recommended the use of more closed facilities for difficult children.

• 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.

• 1964

  The first Secure Unit opens in Kingswood, near Bristol. Proposed by a Home Office Inspectorate group in 1961, the custodial units are meant for children aged 10 to 18 who have absconded from open Approved Schools.

• 1964

  Longford Report recommends the abolition of the juvenile court and replacement by a panel of experts. The recommendation is adopted by the Labour government and appears in a White Paper, but is subsequently dropped.

• 1967

  Court Lees Approved School exposed in the press and a later Home Office inquiry for alleged abusive use of corporal punishment. It is one of several similar scandals at Approved Schools, fuelling public discontent.

• 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.

• 1971

  The first of two youth treatment centres opens at St Charles, Essex. The Department of Health units are for young people considered too disturbed for other custodial options. Both youth treatment centres are closed by 2002.

• 1982

  Criminal Justice Act merges youth imprisonment and borstals into youth custody centres for the under 21s, restricting use to a last resort. Detention centres are reaffirmed as a short, sharp shock. ‘Specified activities’ are introduced.

• 1983

  Intermediate treatment and intensive probation initiatives are introduced by the Department of Health to fund alternatives to custody for children. £15 million of funding leads to 98 new diversionary projects by 1985. Custody rates fall dramatically.

• 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

  Children Act abolishes care orders and supervision orders in criminal proceedings. It also establishes a separate family proceedings court so that the juvenile court can deal purely with young offenders.

• 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

  Two-year-old James Bulger is murdered by two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool. The media and public backlash against young people hardens political attitudes to young offenders and influences justice policy for decades.

• 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.

• 1996

  Misspent Youth report is published by the Audit Commission, criticising the youth justice system as too costly, inefficient and ineffective. It recommends greater interagency cooperation in national government and local practice.

• 1997

  No More Excuses: A new approach to tackling youth crime in England and Wales is released as a White Paper by the new government. Its hardened tone emphasises offenders taking personal responsibility and system efficiency.

• 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.

• 1998

  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.

• 2002

  Justice Munby rules that children in custodial institutions are entitled to the same mainstream services that most children in the community receive; they are still protected by the Children Act 1989 and human rights legislation.

• 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.

• 2004

  The first adolescent forensic unit opens at the Westwood Centre, West Lane Hospital, Middlesborough. Locked units for 12 to 18 year olds effectively replace the much larger previous youth treatment centres.

• 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

  Criminal Justice and Immigration Act replaces all existing community orders with the youth rehabilitation order, addressing reoffending risk through an individualised intervention package. Requirements for courts to balance the prevention of offending with welfare remain unimplemented.

• 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.

+
–

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 – possibly the first such resettlement scheme.

1823 ~ Prison ships are introduced to house some young offenders – the first government sponsored institutions to separate young offenders from adults. Criticised for being harsh and cruel, the last of these hulks closes 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. Castigated by prison reformers, the prison is ‘re-roled’ for adults in 1864.

1854 ~ Reformatory School Act enables voluntary reformatories to be approved by the Inspector of Prisons. Based on the principles of a Victorian Christian home, reformatories are intended to save troubled children from a fallen life.

1854 ~ Youthful Offenders Act allows courts to sentence children under 16 to a stint 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. The prison element is finally abolished in the Reformatory Schools Act 1899.

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.

1907 ~ Probation of Offenders Act allows magistrates to discharge offenders on the condition that they are supervised in the community. Initially, it is principally aimed at replacing punishment for young offenders.

1908 ~ Children Act establishes a separate juvenile court for the first time, dealing with both crime and welfare issues, abolishes custody for children below 14, and now requires the police to provide remand homes.

1908 ~ Prevention of Crime Act rolls out borstals nationally for males aged 16-20 on an indeterminate sentence between one and three years. Release is followed by a supervised licence period of resettlement in the community.

1933 ~ Home Office approved schools are also created by the Children and Young Persons Act. Replacing both reformatories and industrial schools, the voluntary units house both children deemed criminal and those beyond parental control.

1948 ~ Criminal Justice Act abolishes committal to adult prisons for children under 17 years, but allows other types of custody. Non-custodial Attendance Centres are introduced for children over 12 to be sent for specified daytime activities.

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.

1959 ~ Rioting at Carlton Approved School involving staff being stoned and mass absconding damages public confidence in Approved Schools. The resulting inquiry recommended the use of more closed facilities for difficult children.

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.

1964 ~ The first Secure Unit opens in Kingswood, near Bristol. Proposed by a Home Office Inspectorate group in 1961, the custodial units are meant for children aged 10 to 18 who have absconded from open Approved Schools.

1964 ~ Longford Report recommends the abolition of the juvenile court and replacement by a panel of experts. The recommendation is adopted by the Labour government and appears in a White Paper, but is subsequently dropped.

1967 ~ Court Lees Approved School exposed in the press and a later Home Office inquiry for alleged abusive use of corporal punishment. It is one of several similar scandals at Approved Schools, fuelling public discontent.

1971 ~ The first of two youth treatment centres opens at St Charles, Essex. The Department of Health units are for young people considered too disturbed for other custodial options. Both youth treatment centres are closed by 2002.

1983 ~ Intermediate treatment and intensive probation initiatives are introduced by the Department of Health to fund alternatives to custody for children. £15 million of funding leads to 98 new diversionary projects by 1985. Custody rates fall dramatically.

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.

1989 ~ Children Act abolishes care orders and supervision orders in criminal proceedings. It also establishes a separate family proceedings court so that the juvenile court can deal purely with young offenders.

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.

1993 ~ Two-year-old James Bulger is murdered by two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool. The media and public backlash against young people hardens political attitudes to young offenders and influences justice policy for decades.

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.

1996 ~ Misspent Youth report is published by the Audit Commission, criticising the youth justice system as too costly, inefficient and ineffective. It recommends greater interagency cooperation in national government and local practice.

1997 ~ No More Excuses: A new approach to tackling youth crime in England and Wales is released as a White Paper by the new government. Its hardened tone emphasises offenders taking personal responsibility and system efficiency.

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 ~ 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.

2002 ~ Justice Munby rules that children in custodial institutions are entitled to the same mainstream services that most children in the community receive; they are still protected by the Children Act 1989 and human rights legislation.

2004 ~ The first adolescent forensic unit opens at the Westwood Centre, West Lane Hospital, Middlesborough. Locked units for 12 to 18 year olds effectively replace the much larger previous youth treatment centres.

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.

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.