At the end of February 2008 there were (a) (i) 2,283 males aged under 18 and (ii) 9,112 males aged between 18 to 20 and (b) (i) 65 females aged under 18 and (ii) 434 females aged 18 to 20 in all prison establishments in England and Wales.
Juvenile prisoners (those aged under 18) are usually held in designated units and prisons. In exceptional individual circumstances they may be held separately within an adult prison for a short period. Similarly sentenced 18 to 20-year-olds are usually held in designated units and establishments. Current operational practice is to hold unsentenced 18 to 20-year-olds in either an adult prison or in cells designated as prison cells within young offender institutions, and in exceptional circumstances the Secretary of State has the power to direct an 18 to 20-year-old sentenced offender to be held as an adult.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Young Offender Institutions accommodate sentenced prisoners aged from 15 to 21. The following table gives the number of 15 to 17-year-olds received under immediate custodial sentences into prison establishments in England and Wales between 1997 and 2006.
Aged 15 to 17 (Male and Female) 1997 5,617 1998 5,585 1999 5,877 2000 5,834 2001 5,903 2002 5,738 2003 4,918 2004 5,172 2005 5,175 2006 5,291
This table is taken from table 7.6 in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2006, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library and which can be found at this website:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/prisonandprobation.htm
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.