Custody is being used as a “waiting room” for hundreds of children unnecessarily held while awaiting trial or sentence because supporting services are failing, England’s children’s commissioner has warned.
Dame Rachel de Souza said many young people were remanded not because they posed the greatest risk but because the systems meant to help them were inadequate. She called for all young offender institutions (YOIs) in England to be closed.
Speaking at the annual Longford Lecture, de Souza said the country had “retreated from our moral duty” and grown complacent about children in custody. “We have left a vacuum in the services that children need. We have retreated from our moral duty towards these children. And then we are surprised when they fall down,” she said. “Childhood is short and wild and precious. But once you’re remanded into custody your innocence is gone. You see things. You’re told you’re guilty. I am worried that we have become complacent about children in custody. We have treated it as a battle won. We have to close all young offender institutions.”
New research on custodial remand — where young people are held in custody while awaiting trial or sentence rather than released on bail — shows many face lengthy and avoidable time behind bars. The commissioner’s report, published on Tuesday, found that in 2023-24 more than half (62%) of children remanded to custody in England and Wales did not receive a custodial sentence, and 168 children (17%) had their cases dismissed.
The report urges urgent reform of the youth justice system, including replacing YOIs — which inspection reports have linked to violence and serious safeguarding failings — with secure homes or specialist foster care placements. Ofsted in July reported “serious and systemic failures” at Oakhill Secure Training Centre in Milton Keynes, where 23 staff have been suspended in the past year over allegations about conduct with children.
Feltham YOI was described as “the most violent prison in the country” in July 2024 and was temporarily closed in August 2025 amid safety concerns; teenage inmates there had been refusing family visits to protect relatives.
The commissioner’s research found the average remand length in 2021-22 was 125 nights, an 89% increase since 2013-14. More than one in 10 remand cases (14%) lasted over 182 days — exceeding both the 56-day custody limit at magistrates’ courts and the 182-day upper limit at crown courts. Foster care placements for remanded children fell from 13% in 2013-14 to 5% in 2021-22.
The report also highlighted ethnic disparities: in 2021-22 more than half (56%) of remanded children were from Asian, Black, mixed or other minority ethnic groups, with Black and mixed ethnic groups overrepresented relative to the child population. Among all children remanded in 2021-22, a quarter had previously been remanded.
The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
