Call for ban on overnight police custody of children

Call for ban on overnight police custody of children

With tens of thousands of children aged under 16 being detained overnight in police cells, the majority of whom are innocent of any crime, the Howard League for Penal Reform has called for a ban on overnight police detention of under 14s, calling it a "dangerous and frightening practice that does more harm than good". The charity hopes to spare least 11,500 children between the age of 10 to 13 the trauma of being detained overnight in a police cell every year.