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Publications · Young People

What’s wrong with remanding young adults to prison

Voices and lessons learned

This briefing, aimed at practitioners and policymakers, was produced as part of a Howard League project, supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, to better understand the experiences of remanded young adults.

It includes the experiences, voices and lessons to be learned from a group of remanded young adults aged 18 to 20 in a male Category B prison. It is informed by discussions with criminal justice professionals who work with remanded young adults in England and Wales, as well as the Howard League’s work representing individual young adults across the prison estate through its specialist legal advice service.

The briefing is published alongside a colourful 36-page guide, Your legal rights on remand: a guide for young adults, designed to help young adults understand their legal rights if they are remanded in custody. Developed in workshops with young adults in prison, the guide is aimed at 18- to 25-year-olds but may also be helpful to older adults on remand.

The two publications were completed as the total number of people remanded in prison in England and Wales reached its highest level for at least half a century.

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