Catholic kids four times more likely to be jailed than Protestant children in Northern Ireland, new figures reveal

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1. Catholic children in Northern Ireland are four times more likely to end up in custody for criminal offences than Protestant kids, new figures reveal.

   Of the 110 young people under the age of 17 being held in the Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre last year, 63 were Catholic and 15 were Protestant.

   This is in keeping with figures for the last five years, which show the number of Catholic young people in the centre is consistently much higher than those from a Protestant background.

   The Woodlands centre is located in Bangor, Co Down, and houses young people between the ages of 10 and 17 who have committed offences.

   The minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) in Northern Ireland is 10 – one of the lowest in Europe.

   Of those in custody last year at Woodlands – the only facility of its kind in Northern Ireland – 13 were in the 10-13 age bracket.

   The Department of Justice (DOJ) is supportive of increasing the MACR in Northern Ireland to 14.

   However, any proposed changed to the age limit is being stalled by the ongoing political crisis at Stormont.

   A new report by the DOJ provides an insight into the work of the Woodlands centre in the past year. Last year, a total of 110 young people were admitted to Woodlands – a slight increase on the previous year’s admission of 106.

   The report shows 610 young people have been admitted to the centre in the last five years.

   Of those admitted last year, 90 were male and 18 female. Two of the young people sent to Woodlands in 2022/23 chose not to identify their gender.

   In relation to the religious breakdown, the majority of the young inmates at Woodlands were from a Catholic background.

   Sixty-three of those admitted last year said they were Catholic, while 15 said they were Protestant.

   The other 32 young people admitted to Woodlands last year were from another religious background or indicated they had no religious belief.

   Northern Ireland’s Children’s Commissioner has previously called for more analysis of why young Catholics are more likely to find themselves in custody.

   Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Chris Quinn, said the new figures showing the “disparity in the community breakdown” of those entering the Woodlands centre was “worrying”.

   “However, a report commissioned by the Youth Justice Agency by QUB found the ‘high levels of missing data on religion across criminal justice agencies make it difficult to assess the possibility of an over-representation of any particular religious group and makes it difficult to identify stress points’,” he told the *Sunday World*.

   “An inspection by CJINI found that children at Woodlands had complex needs that the criminal justice system could not meet alone.”

   The DOJ last year launched a public consultation on the proposal to raise the MACR in Northern Ireland to 14.

   *Among those who responded in support of the age increase was Siobhan O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Champion.*

   “The notion of ‘criminal responsibility’ is not applicable to a child who has little control of their circumstances and is vulnerable to exploitation or impulsivity,” she said.

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