15 February 2021

Maturity in the magistrates’ court: magistrates, young adults and maturity considerations in decision-making and sentencing

News and events

The Magistrates Association has published a new report on how the issue of maturity is currently handled within magistrates’ courts. Based on research funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the report argues that all young adult defendants’ maturity should be assessed before they come to court and magistrates should receive training on the issue of maturity.

The issue of how young adults should be treated within the criminal justice system has been the subject of extensive research in recent years and has also been considered by two recent Justice Select Committee inquiries. However, most of the research to date has been restricted to crown courts, despite the fact that the majority of criminal offences that come to court are dealt with entirely in magistrates’ courts.

With the publication of new Sentencing Council guidelines in 2019 providing more detail on the specific mitigating factor relating to age or lack of maturity, the MA thought it was important to gather the experiences of magistrates on dealing with young adults and their developing maturity.

The report brings together the key findings from MA research into magistrates’ understanding of maturity and how it is currently handled within magistrates’ courts. The research included a survey of magistrates, a series of focus groups with magistrates, and a roundtable with other court participants including representatives from Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, community rehabilitation companies, youth offending teams and defence solicitors.

Two overarching recommendations arose from this research:

  1. More independent assessments on maturity need to be carried out before the first hearing.
  2. Training needs to be provided to magistrates to give them a general understanding of maturity and how it affects both participation of young adults in court and sentencing decisions.

Commenting on the report, MA chief executive Jon Collins said:  There has been extensive research about developing maturity, and the apparent cliff edge for young people when they turn 18 in respect of the criminal justice system. Given that magistrates deal with the majority of criminal cases, it was important to get their views on this issue. The final report sets out some key recommendations which the MA is keen to take forward.

‘Magistrates recognise that more training on the issue of maturity would be beneficial, while assessments of young adult defendants’ maturity should be carried out routinely before they come to court. This would help magistrates to be better-informed about the people appearing before them, which would in turn support improved court practice and fairer, more effective sentencing.’

A launch event for the report will be taking place online on Tuesday 16 February at 11am.

The executive summary can be read here and the full report can be read here.

The Magistrates Association is an independent charity and the membership body for the magistracy. We work to promote the sound administration of the law, including by providing guidance, training and support for our members, informing the public about the courts and the role of magistrates, producing and publishing research on key topics relevant to the magistracy, and contributing to the development and delivery of reforms to the courts and the broader justice system. With over 14,000 members across England and Wales, we are a unique source of information and insight and the only independent voice of the magistracy.

 

28 January 2021

Young Adults and Remand

Young adults

A new T2A (Transition to Adulthood) briefing on young adults and remand launched today makes the case for a reform of remand arrangements for the young adults.   

A substantial and growing evidence base has found that young adults aged 18-25 are a distinct group, because they are still maturing. Interrupting a young adult’s development with a period in custody should only be made as a last resort.  

The T2A report comes hot on the heels of the Chief Inspectorate of Prison’s short thematic review ‘Outcomes for Young Adults in Custody’, which was highly critical of the Government placing young adults in adult prisons without any coherent strategy, despite a decade of research and evidence explaining the uniqueness of the needs of young adults.  

Specific data is not available about the extent to which young adults remanded to custody subsequently receive a custodial sentence but in the case of children under 18 and women of all ages, most do not.  

Although there has been a decline in the numbers of young adults remanded in custody, the report argues there is scope for reducing them yet further. 

Recent research by Ed Cape and Tom Smith found that “nearly half of those people who are kept in custody at some stage before their trial or sentence were either found not guilty, or if found guilty, were given a non-custodial sentence”.  

In the context of a growing court backlog and highly restricted regimes in prisons because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report’s author, Rob Allen, argues “it is particularly timely to consider the case for reform of remand arrangements”. ‘Extended Custody Time Limits’ introduced in September 2020 to manage court delays, threaten to leave thousands of people on remand in custody for longer than usual.  Young adults are spending longer in custody as a result of these court backlogs which were already problematic prior to the pandemic.   

The recognition of the need for a distinct approach to young adults has already led to a number of important criminal justice reforms such as expanded explanations in Sentencing Guidelines about how age and immaturity can affect both a young adult’s responsibility for an offence and how a particular sentence may impact on them. However, there has been no corresponding reform for young adults on custodial remand who, the report says: “can be deprived of their liberty for many months, often experiencing very impoverished regimes and  placed at risk of violence and self-harm”. 

 The briefing examines to what extent the specific developmental needs of young adults are taken into account by courts when making decisions about whether to remand defendants into custody. It also looks at the existing legal provisions which could be applied at the remand stage of criminal proceedings, and whether criminal justice agencies and courts think about the maturity of young adult defendants when making decisions about remanding them. 

If young adults aren’t remanded in custody the report looks at what alternatives are available, particularly young women, and defendants with mental health problems. 

Finally it looks at what measures might be taken to improve the distinctiveness of remand arrangements for 18-25 year olds?  Read ‘Young Adults on Remand’. 

 

  

19 July 2017

New report calls on Sentencing Council to develop formal sentencing principles for young adults

News and events

The Sentencing Council should work towards developing formal sentencing principles for young adults, similar to the principles that are in place for children, says a report published by the Howard League for Penal Reform and  T2A.

The report, Judging Maturity: Exploring the role of maturity in the sentencing of young adults analysed 174 court judgments in cases involving young adults, focusing on how judges considered the concept of maturity. The findings suggest that the age and maturity of young adult defendants are not sufficiently considered by the courts at present. However, the research also shows that where a young adult’s immaturity is raised by court professionals, the courts are well placed to factor it in to achieve better outcomes – and more likely to do so if sentencing guidance encourages it.

There is substantial evidence that young adults – aged 18 to 25 – should be treated as a distinct group from older adults, largely because they are still maturing – neuroscience research has proven that brain development continues well into the mid-20s. Reaching adulthood is a process, not an event, and the key markers of adulthood, such as independent living, employment and establishing relationships, happen at different times for different young people.

Young adults are more likely to be caught up in the criminal justice system than older adults. They face significant difficulties coping in prison, where both the suicide rate and violence rates are higher among their age group than among the prison population as a whole, and they have higher reconviction rates following release than older adults. Between 2006 and 2016, 164 people aged 18 to 24 died in custody, including 136 who died by suicide.

While there is a wealth of guidance and case law concerning the sentencing of children, there is no set of principles to ensure that judges take a tailored approach to sentencing young adults. Tens of thousands of young adults who appear before the courts for sentencing each year could benefit from a distinct approach.

26 April 2017

Making senses of maturity – how probation practitioners used T2A’s ‘Taking account of maturity’ guide

News and events

Roger Grimshaw, Research Director at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) carried out research for T2A into how practitioners have been using T2A’s ‘Taking Account of Maturityguide which was published in 2013.  His findings have just been published in his report ‘Making Sense of Maturity’.  

In the publication Making Sense of Maturity, research with practitioners and managers shows ways in which the Guide was disseminated and embraced within probation services, and how they see it in the present context. We wanted to find out how the Guide was being used to develop frontline probation practice, to discover any ‘ripple’ effects (for example, on other agencies), to provide a template for monitoring use of the Guide and to scope out directions for future guidance.

Because fieldwork started in 2014, at the point when Transforming Rehabilitation brought abrupt structural changes, the research was delayed as probation grappled with its new priorities. Later, it proved possible to listen to practitioners who were operating with the Guide in the new context that prevails today. Amid the turbulence, the buy-in of senior management to promoting a maturity agenda was a factor in making the Guide a part of practice with young adults, though not all probation areas will have followed the same path. The Guide’s use was enhanced by practice briefings and support which could then chime with organisational delivery, especially by specialist teams.

Maturity looks different from the point of view of probation practice, because there are specific social pathways that have created challenges to the maturity of young adults under supervision.

‘So maturity is fundamental, it’s absolutely fundamental. About 30% of our young people have been in care. 50% of them didn’t finish school. Out of the 50% that did, only 5% got a formal qualification. So the rites of passage that you would normally associate with teenage growth and maturity, they just haven’t hit those milestones.’ (Probation manager)

Missing out on education, going through the care system, having difficulty communicating with agencies: these are just some of the experiences that need to be properly understood. Good communication and the development of trust are vital if young adults are to be engaged. Hence caseloads have to be adjusted to allow time for this sensitive work and other agencies must be fully engaged.

Crucially, the future health of maturity initiatives in probation depends on: an active strategic commitment to developing practice sensitive to the maturity of young adults; and an awareness of the pathways and milestones that a well-informed social policy binding together all agencies should address. If practitioners want to turn those conditions into reality, our research will give them plenty of ammunition and evidence.

 

 

 

 

 

26 October 2016

MPs’ landmark and visionary report on Young Adult Offenders should be implemented in full and without delay, says T2A

News and events

The Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) wholeheartedly welcomes the Justice Committee’s report of its Inquiry on Young Adult Offenders, and fully endorses its “blueprint” for a strategic approach to the treatment of young adults in the criminal justice system.

Reacting to the Committee’s unequivocal conclusion that “there is overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system does not adequately address the distinct needs of young adults” and that “there is a strong case for a distinct approach”, Joyce Moseley OBE, Chair of the T2A Alliance said:

“18-25-year-olds in the criminal justice system have a hugely untapped capacity to address their behaviour and permanently “grow out of crime”. But all of us – particularly victims, the young adults themselves and their communities – are being let down by a lack of strategy at the top that takes account of their distinct stage in life. For too long, successive governments have overlooked the value of a delivering a specific criminal justice approach for young adults, leaving it to a patchwork of pioneers on the ground to do their best to meet the particular needs of this age group.

“Now, having reviewed the extensive and authoritative body of evidence from disciplines including neuroscience, criminology and psychology, all of which support calls for a distinct approach for young adults, the Justice Committee has rightly called on the government to pursue a robust and bold agenda dedicated to enabling young adults who commit crime to turn their lives around. T2A looks forward to working with the Ministry of Justice and other agencies to implement the Committee’s landmark and visionary report in full and without delay.”

The Committee’s report includes a bold blueprint for a distinct approach to young adults throughout the criminal justice system, which it says is presented “in the light of the Government’s failure to act and in recognition of the weight and wealth of evidence provided to us in the course of our inquiry, as well as the overwhelming enthusiasm within the sector for change”.

The Committee’s proposals include:

  • That the prison sentence of ‘Detention in a Young Offender Institution’ (DYOIs) should be extended in forthcoming legislation to include all 18-25 year olds (it is currently restricted to those aged 18-20), and that various models of custody for young adults be piloted by the Ministry of Justice before any decision is made about long-term provision for this age group. T2A has campaigned strongly on both these points, in opposition to government proposals in 2013 to scrap the sentence of DYOI.
  • Distinct young adult courts should be piloted, which T2A is currently developing in five sites across England and Wales in partnership with the Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI).

The Committee recognised that young adults are over-represented in the criminal justice system and also at greater risk of being victims of crime.  Its strong recognition that many young adults in prison have faced additional challenges such as being in care (who make up around two fifths of young adults in prison) and experiencing brain injury (up to 70% of young people in prison), is particularly welcome and long overdue. T2A has worked with the Care Leavers’ Association to develop a national toolkit for young adult care leavers involved the criminal justice system, undertaken specific research and demonstration projects to show how young people with brain injuries in prison can be rehabilitated.

The Committee has specific recommendations relating to the fact that young black and Muslim men are disproportionately likely to end up in the criminal justice system (recognising the important contribution of Baroness Lola Young’s 2014 report), and rightly highlights that young women’s particular vulnerabilities and needs are different both to those of young men and older women and that they require a tailored response.

T2A also welcomes the Committee conclusion that all 18-25 year olds should be recognised as a distinct group, not just those within a criminal justice context, but also with regards to welfare, work, education and health. T2A strongly agrees that there should be cross-governmental responsibility to enable young adults, particularly those who have faced challenge and difficulty, to thrive and not be thwarted.

Notes

  1. Selection of T2A evidence: Brain injury: Repairing Shattered Lives: Brain injury and its implications for criminal justice, Prof Huw Williams; Young adult courts: Young Adults in Court – Developing a tailored approach, Centre for Justice Innovation; Young adults in custody: The Way Forward; Muslim young adults: Young Muslims on Trial, Maslaha
  2. Baroness Lola Young’s Report on the over-representation of Black and Muslim young adult men in the criminal justice system is here: http://www.youngreview.org.uk/
  3. Justice Committee website: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/justice-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/young-adult-offenders/
  4. T2A’s original submission to the Young Adult Offenders Inquiry is here