Until recently, the intention to use custody sparingly for young offenders has proven difficult to realize despite passage of the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act, which aimed to reduce the use of both residential care and prison service custody for juvenile offenders. However, the number of receptions into the prison service for sentenced juveniles has declined in the last decade due to demographic changes and the increased use of police cautioning and diversion of juvenile offenders from prosecution. For juveniles who are prosecuted, there have been changes in the sentencing framework and in the availability of community-based alternatives. Most significant has been the recognition of the limitations and disadvantages of custody in terms of rehabilitation of young offenders. To further these positive developments, NACRO recommends that the government raise the minimum age for incarceration in young offender institutions to 16 from 15, restrict the offenses which require incarceration to those which would carry the penalty of life imprisonment for an adult, and generally limit Crown Court custodial sentencing powers for offenders aged 18-20 to 12 months unless their offense warrants a longer period of detention in the interests of public safety. 12 notes and 1 appendix