Theresa May will announce changes the Mental Health Act this week that mean mentally ill teenagers are never held in police cells when they should be in a hospital bed. As I reveal in The Times this morning, the Home Secretary will on Thursday publish a review of sections 135 and 136 of the Act which allow police to ‘section’ someone in mental distress in public or private places so that sick children cannot be taken to a cell, and adults are only detained there if their extreme behaviour cannot be managed elsewhere.
It may come as a surprise that this happens at all, but last year 236 under-18s ended up in cells when they should have been in hospital. This number fluctuates a little from year to year – it was down from 263 the previous year – but a couple of hundred children are being locked up generally because there are no beds for them.
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