Muddled Approach to Youth Offenders

The government announced today new measures to attempt to cut 'youth reoffending'. These include resettlement programmes and a number of other attempts to put Britains young offenders back on the straight and narrow once they've served their time and to break what, for some, can be a vicious cycle of reoffending.

This is a very noble act. In fact, it's more than just a noble act, it's a largely necessary one too! But the approach is quite possibly the wrong one. This government, in its attempt to be 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' has proven itself to only be adept at the former part of that sound bite. Hundreds of new crimes have been created and we now incarcerate more people in our country's prisons than we ever have done before.

Of course, it's right to make sure that those who leave prison don't re-enter a life of crime. But that's what the prison service should be doing anyway. The way forward is not to bang up our kids in the first place. We need to focus on youth projects to keep the young out of crime in the first place. We need to focus on working with the youth criminals and not resort to custodial sentences as a first resort. We need to focus on making sure that the system that our young offenders are thrust in works well for them.

As Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said in the BBC article:

"Short jail sentences and overuse of custodial remand make no sense. Imprisonment leaves a lasting mark on the young. Being a former prisoner while still a teenager usually leads to wasted lives, years of misery and public expense. Surely we can do better than this?"

Yes, focus on preventing reoffending. It's not only noble, it's essential. But to do so you have to ask yourself if prison in the first place is really the best option, not patching up your mistakes once they've been released.