Time to stop locking up so many children and young people

On Friday 27 April 2007, the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice meeting in Vienna adopted a resolution which advocates national action plans to reduce the imprisonment of juveniles; to set targets for fewer children in prison; and to use diversion and restorative justice as alternatives to custody.

Today, Wednesday 2 May, the Prison Reform Trust and The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund announced the start of a £1.5 million five-year strategy to reduce child and youth imprisonment in the UK.

Dr Astrid Honeyman, Chief Executive of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, said today: “The Fund is pleased to provide a grant of £1.5 million over five years to support this crucial work. We are confident that it will contribute significantly to realising our objectives of reducing child and youth imprisonment and promoting the adoption as government policy of effective alternatives to custody.”

Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust (PRT), said: “By ploughing on with punitive policies and an over-reliance on imprisonment, all we are doing is damaging and excluding still further a generation of young people already existing at the margins of society. It’s time to stop locking up so many children and young people. We need to join up social policy with criminal justice policy and use more constructive measures to cut youth crime”.

PRT has developed the five-year strategy to work with powerful partners, including non-governmental organisations, monitors and commissioners and groups of service users and providers, to change government policy. “The goal is to reduce child and youth imprisonment, so that we no longer hold the shameful record of incarcerating more young people than any other country in Western Europe,” Ms Lyon added.

The number of children and young people being sentenced to custody has almost doubled in ten years. According to home office figures, in February 2007 there were 11,872 under 21 year olds in prison including 2,418 under 18. Prisons are awash with record numbers of teenagers and young adult men in their early twenties. There has been a measurable increase in levels of mental illness, distress and self-harm. Reconviction rates have soared to an average of 78 per cent for 18-20 year olds and over 80 per cent for under 18s.

One young man in custody said: “I’m not being funny but I think the harder the prison, the more worse it turns you mentally, you know in your head.”

This is a complex problem demanding a range of solutions co-ordinated coherently to create a new and better framework. PRT’s strategy comprises:

1.                  a high profile, independent inquiry into the treatment of, and conditions for, young prisoners and their families to produce compelling evidence, and a clear set of recommendations for change

2.                  a review of the range and effectiveness of alternatives to custody and vigorous, imaginative promotion of community solutions to crime, building on the initial success of SmartJustice for Young People and its widespread national alliance, and providing further answers to the question, if prison doesn’t work to cut youth crime, what does? Effective initiatives profiled will including support for those with learning disabilities and difficulties, drug and alcohol treatment, cutting off the route from care to custody, family support, respecting culture and race and restorative justice

3.                  an exploration of mental health diversion from the criminal justice system and sentencing practice to lead to the establishment of a national network of pre-court and court mental health diversion schemes and improved services

4.                  an examination of the social and economic costs of youth imprisonment and its alternatives to present to the Treasury and government departments a coherent economic case for reform

5.                  an authoritative overview of international policy and practice designed to profile countries that avoid judicial proceedings and youth imprisonment whenever possible and to prompt the development of alternative, effective models for reform. We lock up 23 children per 100,000 population, compared with six in France, two in Spain, 0.2 in Finland.

Over the next few months, PRT will appoint a programme director and agree initial partnership arrangements.

Notes to editors:

Contact details:

Prison Reform Trust: 0207 251 5070; Juliet Lyon: mobile 07762 093105 or William Higham mobile 07939 228255

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund: Daniel Woolford 0207 902 5510

February 2007 Home Office figures:

15-17’s in prison: 2,418, rise of 4% on year before (454 of these children held in secure training centres and local authority secure children’s homes)

Young people aged 18-20 – 9,286 in prison, a rise of 7% on the year before