Eight-five per cent of people think that children should not be imprisoned at the age of ten. This was revealed by a survey of over 1000 people by SmartJustice. They weren’t asked, but I’d wager that most of those polled did not know that ten year olds can be and are imprisoned in England and Wales. The number of children in prison have risen steadily since 1989 through Conservative and Labour Governments. Now over 3000 teenagers under 18 are in prison each month.
People are less punitive than is sometimes communicated in the media. Those polled said the age of incarceration should be higher and that prison doesn’t work for young offenders. Only one-in-ten people think prison turns young offenders into law-abiding citizens. Two-in-three people think that prisons are universities of crime and believe they are not effective in reducing young people’s offending. Instead the vast majority (eight in 10) back mental healthcare and drug or alcohol treatment. Nearly all want better support for young people by parents and more constructive activities to stop them getting into trouble in the first place.
The public’s hunch that prison doesn’t work for young offenders is supported by facts – 80 per cent who are released from prison are reconvicted within two years. This is not surprising. Many child jails have excellent, caring staff and teenagers often feel safer inside than out. But a vulnerable, socially excluded child who goes into prison usually comes out still vulnerable, and living in the same social circumstances. Only by tackling the mental health problems and the learning and behavioural difficulties of young offenders will we have a chance of significantly reducing reoffending. This is not to say that every criminal has welfare problems. Nor that committing crime should ever be excused. But we must tackle the causes of crime as well as punishing those who offend.
The release of the SmartJustice survey marks the launch of a new programme to reduce the number of children and young people imprisoned in the UK, funded by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. Its trustees are particularly concerned that the mental health needs of children in custody are not being met, and the invariably depressing journey from local authority care to imprisonment.
Noone is happy about the number of children in custody today. Imprisoning children is very expensive. Some of the places in which children are held cost over £100,000 per child per year, money which could be spent on preventing reoffending. Many children are imprisoned on remand or on short sentences. But little therapy or education can be delivered to those imprisoned for only a few weeks. The answer is not to imprison under 18s for longer but to cut down on the use of remand and of short detention and training orders – just a couple of the ways our child prison population could be reduced overnight.