Unlock is taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge – which means any donation you are able to make will be doubled at no extra cost to you, thanks to match funding.
This year, we’re focussing on the issues faced by people who receive criminal records as children. We hear every day from people who are still facing barriers to getting on in life, decades later.
There are rightly different laws, policies and practices – including a distinct court system and different custodial institutions – for children who enter the criminal justice system. However, the criminal record system relating to childhood offences remains only a slightly tweaked version of the adult system. This means people who acquire a criminal record as a child can see this traumatic part of their lives returning to haunt them, in all sorts of unexpected ways, for the rest of their lives.
Unlock has been successful in helping to bring about some improvements to the system, but we know more change is needed. We will campaign for:
- The majority of childhood offences to be sealed when sentence is completed.
- All those offences to be sealed after a set period of time.
- A transparent system for assessing when exceptionally serious offences become sealed.
Funding from The Big Give Christmas Challenge will help us campaign to bring about these changes.
Learn more about this topic
- DBS checks and work experience: what the new regulated activity rules actually mean
- Youth justice sector join FairChecks letter to Justice Minister with a plan for childhood criminal records reform
- From Participation to Influence
- “People should be given a fair chance at a second chance” Paula Harriott on the early release scheme
- Unlock respond to the Ministry of Justice review of the prison system
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Do you need help & support with an issue you’re facing?
We provide support and advice for people in England and Wales who need guidance with either their own, or someone else’s, criminal record.
Please use the search box to start typing your issue. If you cannot find an answer to your problem then you’ll be given options to contact us directly.
Popular advice
- Travelling to Russia
- Working overseas
- Information: Relationships, children and dealing with social services
- Information contained on UK passports
- Single Justice Procedure Notice (SJPN)
- What will be disclosed on a basic DBS check?
- Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO)
- Detention and training order (under 18)
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