Scotland’s Criminal Justice Committee has published an Action Plan for the Scottish justice sector, highlighting some of the key challenges they believe the Scottish Government and justice partners must address during this parliamentary session.
The Committee makes recommendations for issues that are affecting children’s rights, including the following:
- In principle, children under the age of 18 should not be in prison, only in secure care.
- Children under 18 should not be deprived of their liberty in prisons or young offenders institutions. Instead, we must ensure that children receive really good-quality intensive support, perhaps in a secure setting but not in the prison system.
- COVID-19 restrictions in prisons on activities, association, contact with families etc should only be in place where strictly necessary and all efforts made to remove them as soon as possible and alternatives put in place in the meantime.
- Violence against women and girls, supporting victims and witnesses, including the Barnahus model, deaths in custody, legal aid, prevention and diversion, addiction, community-based support, trauma informed responses.
