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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:30 am
Time: 12:30 am
Results for juvenil offenders (u.k.)
1 results foundAuthor: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Justice Committee Title: Youth Justice. Seventh Report of Session 2012–13. Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk Summary: The Youth Justice Board, youth offending teams and their partners have made great strides towards a more proportionate and effective response to youth offending which prioritises prevention. We strongly welcome the substantial decrease since 2006/07 in the number of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time, and are particularly encouraged that agencies in many areas are using a restorative justice approach to resolve very minor offending. However, looked after children have not benefited from this shift to the same extent as other children and we make recommendations to ensure that local authorities, children’s homes and prosecutors have appropriate strategies in place to prevent them from being criminalised for trivial incidents which would never come to police attention if they took place in family homes. There is a limit to what criminal justice agencies can achieve in preventing offending: young people in the criminal justice system are disproportionately likely to have high levels of welfare need and other agencies have often failed to offer them support at an early stage. We are therefore disappointed that the Government does not plan a significant shift in resources towards early intervention and recommend more research into the contributory factors to the reductions in the number of young people entering the criminal justice system, to enable better decision-making about the distribution of funding. Out-of-court disposals can provide a proportionate means of dealing with offending that deserves a criminal justice response but is not serious enough to warrant prosecution, but we suggest some safeguards in response to concern amongst sentencers and the wider public that their use is not always transparent or appropriate. Where young people come before the courts, we make recommendations to protect the right of young offenders with speech, language and communication needs and/or a learning disability to a fair trial and to provide a mechanism for young people with exceptional welfare needs to be referred to the family court. In relation to sentencing, we commend the collaboration between the Youth Justice Board, youth offending teams and the judiciary to bring about a significant reduction in the numbers of young people in custody since 2008. In order to cement these gains, ensure we meet our international obligations for custody to be used only in cases of genuine last resort, and reduce the huge financial burden the secure estate places on the state, we recommend a statutory threshold to enshrine in legislation the principle that only the most serious and prolific young offenders should be placed in custody; devolving the custody budget to enable local authorities to invest in effective alternatives to custody; and more action to reduce the number of young people who breach the terms of their community sentences and the number of young black men in custody. We welcome the Government’s commitment to restorative justice; however we believe more should be done to make it integral to the youth justice system. We describe our vision for a complete reconfiguration of the secure estate to one comprising small, local units with a high staff ratio where young offenders who require detention can maintain links with their families and children’s services. We highlight three very serious issues in the custodial estate that require action. First, it is imperative to draw together and act upon lessons arising from the deaths of vulnerable young people in custody. Secondly, we are concerned that the use of restraint, which has been linked to at least one of these deaths, rose considerably last year and press for a fundamental cultural shift across the secure estate. Thirdly, we recommend more and better co-ordinated support for looked after children and care leavers in custody, who are all too often abandoned by children’s and social services. In contrast with their success in other areas, the Youth Justice Board and local agencies have failed to make any progress in reducing the binary re-offending rate. We endorse the Secretary of State’s aim of improving the basic literacy of offenders but we are not convinced that it is most useful to focus resources on the secure estate, given that the average length of stay is currently 79 days. The greater focus should be on improving transition between custody and the community, and on improving provision in the community and incentivising schools and colleges to take back difficult students. There is a need for better data about which interventions work best to reduce re-offending; better assessment for impairments, vulnerabilities and health issues and follow-up interventions, including more access to speech and language therapists; and better resettlement support, particularly in relation to suitable accommodation. Finally, earlier planning, better information sharing and a smoother transition between youth and adult provision would ensure that progress is not lost when an offender turns 18. Details: London: The Stationery Office Limited, 2013. 224p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2013 at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmjust/339/339.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmjust/339/339.pdf Shelf Number: 128617 Keywords: Juvenil Offenders (U.K.)Juvenile Justice ReformJuvenile Justice Systems |