Youth arrests in Jersey doubled in 2020

The number of young people arrested by the States of Jersey Police last year was double that of 2019. Officers arrested 282 people under the age of 18 in 2020. The figure comes from the annual report from the Office of the Children's Commissioner. Deborah McMillan said lockdown and school closures might explain the rise.

The Commissioner's annual report also details the work needed in 2021 to uphold children's rights, as set out in the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which Jersey signed up to in 2014. The UNCRC states that every child has the right an education, a decent standard of living and healthcare. The Commissioner asserts that around 70 Jersey laws need to be updated to comply with the UNCRC.

She says she will focus her attention on filling what she called this "legislative gap", and challenging the government to help young people and families recover from the negative impacts of the pandemic.