In England and Wales, children can be remanded to custody before they have been found guilty of any crime. But are too many children being locked up unnecessarily, and at what cost? In this episode, hosts Penelope and Rob are joined by Angus Jones, HMI Prisons Team Leader for Children and Young People, and Mel Stooks, solicitor, to examine the use of remand for children in the youth justice system.

They explore the impact even a short spell in custody has on children’s lives, why so many remanded children are ultimately not given a custodial sentence, and why disorganisation across the various services involved so often means that a workable bail package isn’t ready at a child’s first court appearance, leaving a child in custody who need not be there.

Angus Jones

Read HMIP’s report on children on short-term remand here: https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/children-on-short-term-remand/

Mel Stooks

Learn about Mel’s work here: https://gtstewart.co.uk/our-people/mel-stooks/

Further resources

See Transform Justice’s work on pre-trial imprisonment here: https://www.transformjustice.org.uk/focus-areas/pre-trial-imprisonment/

Read Transform Justice’s latest Insight on child remand here: https://www.transformjustice.org.uk/news-insight/whats-causing-pointless-short-remands-of-children/

Transform Justice

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TransformJust1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BlueSky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@transformjustice.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

The Transform Justice podcast is hosted by Penelope Gibbs and Rob Allen and produced and edited by Alexandra Kimmons.