"Criminal Damage"
The Prison Reform Trust, supported by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, has published a plan calling for radical reform of the failing youth justices system which this year missed its key targets to cut the number of children incarcerated in England and Wales.
The report recommends that local authorities are given control of the national annual budget for child custody, citing this move would cut crime and reduce the number of children in jail. The report also reveals that despite, the official policy of only jailing children in exceptional circumstances, many children in jail have not committed serious or violent offences.
Publishing the full findings of an ICM poll revealing that the public believe locking up children is damaging and counter productive, the Prison Reform Trust plan proposes 12 ways to reduce the number of children imprisoned in England and Wales, including:
Greater use of police and Crown Prosecution Service discretion and restorative justice schemes to stop the criminalisation of troubled children;
Banning the imprisonment of under-18 year olds for non-violent offences;
Requiring local authorities to do more to understand and take action to prevent the high numbers of children in their care ending up in custody – 30 per cent of imprisoned children have been in local authority care.
The plan is part of the Prison Reform Trust's five year programme to reduce child and youth imprisonment, which is supported by The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
Click here to see the plan in full. http://www.theworkcontinues.org.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=52
