Lessons from the literature: update March 2016
22 March 2016
This review is the most recent in a series of regular updates intended to outline the latest lessons from research, policy and practice in the resettlement of young people. It provides an overview of relevant publications and developments since Beyond Youth Custody’s last update in October 2015.
This review:
- Considers trends in the general prison population and looks at how trends in the child custodial population continue to change over time, examining possible reasons for this. It then takes a closer look at the changing demographics of the child custodial population, including growing ethnic disproportionality and variances in the speed of decline in imprisonment for different age groups of young people.
- Summarises findings of several recently released publications including HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the Youth Justice Board’s joint report on young people’s perceptions of experiences in custody, T2A’s report into meeting the needs of young women in prison, a study into identifying and supporting traumatised young people in custody and an article on the parenting and custodial experiences of young offender fathers.
- Includes a particular focus on interim findings from the current Taylor Review of youth justice, drawing out some of the implications for resettlement of children. It also summarises recent commentary in youth justice and provides an analysis of the government’s current prison reform programme, including the ‘prison building revolution’ and changes to women’s custodial estate.