Young People in Custody

[Supplementary Tables A2, B2, and M1]

The number of young people aged under 21 in prison in Scotland grew slightly from 160 in 2022-23 to 168 (+9) in 2023-24, but remains far below historic levels. On an average day in 2009-10 there were 1,012 young people in Scottish prisons, and young people made up 13% of the prison population. In 2023-24 they comprised just 2% of the prison population on the average day.

In the context of a growing (average daily) prison population overall, the observed 5.4% growth from last year is in line with broader population trends (+5.8%). This growth occurred entirely among 18 to 20 year olds (+13).The number of under-18s in custody actually fell from 9 to 5 on the average day.

The overall population of young people in custody broken down by legal status is provided in Figure 13. This shows that the sentenced population of young people rose in 2023-24, with 105 sentenced under-21 year olds on the average day, compared to 76 in 2022-23. While the absolute increase is relatively small, the proportionate increase in this group is 37%. Similarly, the untried population fell by around 31% in 2023-24 (from 64 in 2022-23 to 45), while the CAS population remained the same over the reporting period (17 in both 2022-23 and 2023-24).

The proportion of young people in custody on remand (untried and CAS) has been consistently higher than that of the prison population as a whole, and pre-pandemic was around 31%. In 2022-23 it was 51%, however the population changes outlined above led to lower remand rate of 36% in 2023-24.

Figure 13: While the population of young people in custody has been in long-term decline, there was a small increase in 2023-24. The number of sentenced young people on an average day increased in 2023-24 while the number untried fell

Young people (under 21) in prison by legal status – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2023-24

Index offence groups

[Supplementary Tables M2]

As shown in Figure 14, the overall growth in the (average daily) sentenced population of young people was driven by increases across all index offence groups between 2022-23 and 2023-24.

In Group 1 (Non-sexual crimes of violence) and Group 2 (Sexual crimes), the populations returned to approximately the level observed in 2021-22. No index offence group (nor the sentenced population of young people as a whole) has returned to its pre-pandemic level. A notable increase was observed in the population with index offences in Group 3 (Dishonesty), although the absolute numbers are very small:  from 4 to 10 on the average day.

Figure 14: The overall growth in the sentenced population of young people in 2023-24 was driven by increases across multiple index offence groups

Index offence groups of sentenced young people (under 21 years) – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2023-24

Those with index offences in Group 1 (Non-sexual crimes of violence) continued to account for the largest group in the sentenced population of young people in 2023-24 at 53% (56 sentenced young people on the average day), however this is a smaller proportion than has been observed since 2018-19 (ranging as it has between 54% and 64% for the past five years).

Index sentences

[Supplementary table M3]

Figure 15 shows the index sentence[i] profile of the (average daily) population of young people under 21.

There were increases across most index sentence bands in 2023-24. The largest proportional increase was observed in the group with index sentences between 4 and 10 years, which grew by 68% from around 11 in 2022-23 to 18 in 2023-24.

Population increases in the index sentence bands of ‘≤ 1 year’ and ‘> 1 and ≤ 2 years’ are slightly lower than the overall change, increasing by 53% (+12 from 24 to 36) and 38% (+7 from 18 to 25) respectively. The increase in the ‘> 2 and ≤ 4 years’ band was just 25% (+4 ADP from 16 to 20) – lower than the overall population change.

Figure 15: The largest increases across the sentenced population of young people in 2023-24 has been in the shortest index sentence groups and the between 4 and less than 10 year group

Index sentences of young people (under 21) – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2023-24