The Fear Factory is an apt description because when I entered “Monster Mansion” (Wakefield Prison) in 1972 I was 21 years of age but mentally and physically more like a 14 year old. I hugged the wall like a shadow out of fear. A chicken waiting to be plucked by the vultures staring down from the landings above. I recall thinking it was a Vultures Paradise.
Whilst in prison I have studied. Links have been drawn between the factory and the prison. Just type prisons like factories into Google and see for yourselves.
When the prison authorities state that they feared me more as a law-abiding citizen applying the law in prison than they did when I was being violent, reminds me of the boy, youth, young man, and then adult as I stood in the dock facing a judge. I had invoked the judge looking over their shoulder, and they could not stand up to the legal scrutiny.
I became famous for my legal challenges, and made history with the Prisoners Votes Case, then authored a blog, which has a worldwide readership (save for China which blocks me with the Great Firewall of China). So, it is understandable to me that The Fear Factory production team got in touch with me to take part in their production. I was going down to London anyway, and popped into their studio/flat.
First impression, a flat it’s a Mickey Mouse production. This was quickly replaced when I met the team and admired their professionalism. The shoot was only meant to last a short while, but it appeared as though they had stumbled upon a gold mine and set to digging. This took time. A lot of time, in fact. It did mean that it impinged upon time I had mentally intended to donate to others. (They did get another visit to make up for my hastily changed plan).
They say that the proof is in the eating. The sampler is a tasty tease of better to come. I look forward to the screening on 1st of March. I intend to go down to London for it. I was unable to go to the premier of Underbelly, which I was a special adviser on and a character in it is loosely based upon me, therefore it’s a first for me if everything goes as planned.
John Hirst
http://jailhouselawyersblog.blogspot.com/
Friday, 26 February 2010
Young People’s Participation in the Youth Justice System
Young offenders have the same right to have their views taken into account as other children and young people. However a new NCB report, Young People’s Participation in the Youth Justice System, has found that there are a number of barriers to participative approaches in youth justice services, despite evidence that young offenders who have a say in decisions that affect them are more likely to have better outcomes overall.
The report suggests that negative public perceptions of young offenders have resulted in political ambivalence as to whether young offenders ‘deserve’ a say, while staff culture and commitment and a lack of training on participative approaches can further hinder meaningful contributions by young people in their own assessments. Furthermore young offenders have low expectations about their ability to influence the plans that are made for them, despite welcoming the opportunity to have more say.
While some local services have developed their own initiatives to consult young offenders on issues that affect them, the report recommends that the Youth Justice Board lead the process by developing a participation strategy covering all aspects of the youth justice system. It is imperative that such a strategy establish mechanisms that will support the development of a culture of participation throughout youth justice services. In responding to the report, Frances Done, chair of the Board, has stated that the Board will consider its approach to participation and regard the development of a participation strategy as a high priority.
We know from evidence and experience that outcomes are more likely to be positive when young people have been active partners in shaping the services they receive. The approach to involving young people within the youth justice system in their own assessment and case management should also be reviewed, in partnership with young people. Developing a comprehensive participation strategy covering both individual and more general aspects of youth justice services could greatly improve outcomes for young offenders and enhance the job satisfaction of staff working with them.
Diane Hart
Principle Officer
Youth Justice and Welfare
National Children's Bureau
The report suggests that negative public perceptions of young offenders have resulted in political ambivalence as to whether young offenders ‘deserve’ a say, while staff culture and commitment and a lack of training on participative approaches can further hinder meaningful contributions by young people in their own assessments. Furthermore young offenders have low expectations about their ability to influence the plans that are made for them, despite welcoming the opportunity to have more say.
While some local services have developed their own initiatives to consult young offenders on issues that affect them, the report recommends that the Youth Justice Board lead the process by developing a participation strategy covering all aspects of the youth justice system. It is imperative that such a strategy establish mechanisms that will support the development of a culture of participation throughout youth justice services. In responding to the report, Frances Done, chair of the Board, has stated that the Board will consider its approach to participation and regard the development of a participation strategy as a high priority.
We know from evidence and experience that outcomes are more likely to be positive when young people have been active partners in shaping the services they receive. The approach to involving young people within the youth justice system in their own assessment and case management should also be reviewed, in partnership with young people. Developing a comprehensive participation strategy covering both individual and more general aspects of youth justice services could greatly improve outcomes for young offenders and enhance the job satisfaction of staff working with them.
Diane Hart
Principle Officer
Youth Justice and Welfare
National Children's Bureau
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Criminal Justice Alliance
It is not often than you see a good news story in the criminal justice arena, but against all expectations the tide does seem to be turning in youth justice. According to Government figures (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/STR/d000895/index.shtml), the number of first time entrants into the youth justice system has fallen substantially, with 74,033 young people aged 10-17 receiving their first reprimand, warning or conviction in England in 2008-09, a decrease of a startling 21.6% from 94,481 young people in 2007-08 and down from a peak of 104,361 in 2006-07. Meanwhile the number of young people in custody has also fallen (http://www.cypnow.co.uk/bulletins/Youth-Justice/news/982724/?DCMP=EMC-YouthJustice), with 2,203 under-18s in custody in December 2009, down by nearly 1,000 from a peak of 3,175 in October 2002.
Clearly, too many young people still come into contact with the youth justice system, and nobody should be satisfied with what is still a high level of youth custody. But progress is, at last, being made. So what is causing this? Nobody seems to know for sure. The abandonment of the notorious ‘Offences Brought to Justice’ target has probably played a part in the reduction in the number of first time entrants into the youth justice system. This target had a disproportionate impact on under-18s, who were more likely to be targeted unnecessarily in the drive to meet it. Scrapping the target should have made it easier for the police to deal with minor offences informally.
Alongside this, a shaky political consensus appears to be emerging that too many young people are being criminalised, and that better ways can be found to address troublesome behaviour by children and young people. This is exemplified by the Government’s public statements in support of the falling number of first time entrants into the youth justice system, the Conservatives’ attempts, however clumsy, to find ways of addressing youth offending outside the formal youth justice system, and the Liberal Democrats’ criticism of the Government for their previous ‘unprecedented criminalisation of our children’. It is far from perfect, of course, and there are still far too many occasions when politicians from all parties use crime by young people as a way of scoring political points. But the atmosphere does seem to be less febrile than it was, particularly with regards to low-level offending, although whether this will survive a hotly-contested election campaign remains to be seen.
The falling number of first time entrants into the youth justice system will, in turn, have had a significant effect on the number of young people who, once caught up in the youth justice system, end up in custody. It is likely that other factors will also have had an impact. The use of custody may, for example, have been affected by the work of the Youth Justice Board to persuade courts and youth offending teams to have confidence in alternative options. However, why that would have been successful now, but not previously, is not clear. There is also a vibrant campaigning environment around the issue of youth justice, including, for example, the Prison Reform Trust’s Out of Trouble campaign (http://www.outoftrouble.org.uk/) and the work of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice (http://www.scyj.org.uk/). By and large, this work has the support of children’s charities such as the Children’s Society and the NSPCC, which arguably command more public support than traditional penal reformers. This campaigning work may finally be having an impact.
Whatever the causes, the drop in the use of youth custody, in particular, is extremely welcome. Unfortunately, there has been no parallel reduction in the adult prison population, which continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. So alongside a clearer understanding of what caused the reduction in the use of custody for young people and how this can be sustained, what we also need to examine is how similar gains can be made in reducing the adult prison population and reversing the escalation in the use, and the reach, of the adult criminal justice system.
Jon Collins,
Campaign Director,
Criminal Justice Alliance (www.criminaljusticealliance.org)
Clearly, too many young people still come into contact with the youth justice system, and nobody should be satisfied with what is still a high level of youth custody. But progress is, at last, being made. So what is causing this? Nobody seems to know for sure. The abandonment of the notorious ‘Offences Brought to Justice’ target has probably played a part in the reduction in the number of first time entrants into the youth justice system. This target had a disproportionate impact on under-18s, who were more likely to be targeted unnecessarily in the drive to meet it. Scrapping the target should have made it easier for the police to deal with minor offences informally.
Alongside this, a shaky political consensus appears to be emerging that too many young people are being criminalised, and that better ways can be found to address troublesome behaviour by children and young people. This is exemplified by the Government’s public statements in support of the falling number of first time entrants into the youth justice system, the Conservatives’ attempts, however clumsy, to find ways of addressing youth offending outside the formal youth justice system, and the Liberal Democrats’ criticism of the Government for their previous ‘unprecedented criminalisation of our children’. It is far from perfect, of course, and there are still far too many occasions when politicians from all parties use crime by young people as a way of scoring political points. But the atmosphere does seem to be less febrile than it was, particularly with regards to low-level offending, although whether this will survive a hotly-contested election campaign remains to be seen.
The falling number of first time entrants into the youth justice system will, in turn, have had a significant effect on the number of young people who, once caught up in the youth justice system, end up in custody. It is likely that other factors will also have had an impact. The use of custody may, for example, have been affected by the work of the Youth Justice Board to persuade courts and youth offending teams to have confidence in alternative options. However, why that would have been successful now, but not previously, is not clear. There is also a vibrant campaigning environment around the issue of youth justice, including, for example, the Prison Reform Trust’s Out of Trouble campaign (http://www.outoftrouble.org.uk/) and the work of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice (http://www.scyj.org.uk/). By and large, this work has the support of children’s charities such as the Children’s Society and the NSPCC, which arguably command more public support than traditional penal reformers. This campaigning work may finally be having an impact.
Whatever the causes, the drop in the use of youth custody, in particular, is extremely welcome. Unfortunately, there has been no parallel reduction in the adult prison population, which continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. So alongside a clearer understanding of what caused the reduction in the use of custody for young people and how this can be sustained, what we also need to examine is how similar gains can be made in reducing the adult prison population and reversing the escalation in the use, and the reach, of the adult criminal justice system.
Jon Collins,
Campaign Director,
Criminal Justice Alliance (www.criminaljusticealliance.org)
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Help is needed to deal with the challenges of life ‘on the outside’
It is worth remembering that nearly every person we lock up (as I write this post the current UK prison population stands at 83,655 – an increase of nearly 1,500 on this time last year) will be released back into the community one day.
Many of our clients tell us that the crucial few days after release is when the real battle starts. Most prisoners come out determined to go straight with no intention of ever seeing the inside of a cell again. Prison is a harsh, lonely, degrading experience with overcrowding compounding this (imagine having to share an in-cell, unconcealed toilet with a complete stranger – this is the reality of an adult prison rather than the image of three star luxury presented by some tabloids). The loss of liberty is the punishment element of prison but a side effect of this is that prisoners are often ill-equipped for life ‘on the outside’. Too many are released without stable accommodation to go to, help getting their finances sorted and support into work or training. Others simply find the outside world too overwhelming and the smallest things become a huge challenge. One man talked of being in tears at the station on his way home from prison because he couldn’t handle the bustle of a small suburban rail station. Another confided that he used to run out of shops in a panic when shopping with his kids because he couldn’t deal with crowds.
Brash, hardy exteriors are adopted as a mode of survival on the prison wing but these defences can come crashing down when people are released back into the community. St Giles Trust aims to help ease this transition by offering practical and emotional support to people leaving prison and handholding them through the following few weeks when the risk of re-offending is very high if the right support is not in place.
Our caseworkers are right by their side from the minute they are released if they need it and stay with them until they are settled. We will not abandon anyone by leaving them homeless and stranded – if necessary we will pay for emergency housing out of our own resources if family, local councils and housing associations cannot provide a roof.
The impact of this work is huge. For 16 months, St Giles Trust were funded by The London Probation service to provide post-release support to prison leavers returning to London. During this time over 1,500 prison leavers were referred to the service and we successfully housed over 1,000 of them who would have had nowhere to go otherwise. Only a handful were recalled to prison during this time.
Unfortunately, funding for this service came to an end. We are still providing an ad hoc version through various other smaller projects we have been able to get up and running to pick up the huge levels of unmet need. However, these are operating under considerable pressure and are no replacement for a dedicated service which provides a single point of contact for anyone leaving prison requiring support.
That is why we are calling for everyone who needs help on release from prison to be provided with the opportunity to be met and supported by someone who can help them get established outside and negotiate the rocky road to resettlement. Someone who has had a spell in prison will face huge barriers– many are homeless, connections with friends and family have often broken down and they may face discrimination when looking for employment or training.
Someone who commits a crime deserves to be punished – that is without question. But for too long now we have set ex-prisoners up to fail once they are released back into the community. Continuing to judge and discriminate against ex-offenders after they have finished their sentence serves no-one and ensures a one-way ticket back to prison, with all the associated costs and misery this brings. Surely everyone deserves a second chance?
Rob Owen,
Chief Executive, St Giles Trust
www.stgilestrust.org.uk
Many of our clients tell us that the crucial few days after release is when the real battle starts. Most prisoners come out determined to go straight with no intention of ever seeing the inside of a cell again. Prison is a harsh, lonely, degrading experience with overcrowding compounding this (imagine having to share an in-cell, unconcealed toilet with a complete stranger – this is the reality of an adult prison rather than the image of three star luxury presented by some tabloids). The loss of liberty is the punishment element of prison but a side effect of this is that prisoners are often ill-equipped for life ‘on the outside’. Too many are released without stable accommodation to go to, help getting their finances sorted and support into work or training. Others simply find the outside world too overwhelming and the smallest things become a huge challenge. One man talked of being in tears at the station on his way home from prison because he couldn’t handle the bustle of a small suburban rail station. Another confided that he used to run out of shops in a panic when shopping with his kids because he couldn’t deal with crowds.
Brash, hardy exteriors are adopted as a mode of survival on the prison wing but these defences can come crashing down when people are released back into the community. St Giles Trust aims to help ease this transition by offering practical and emotional support to people leaving prison and handholding them through the following few weeks when the risk of re-offending is very high if the right support is not in place.
Our caseworkers are right by their side from the minute they are released if they need it and stay with them until they are settled. We will not abandon anyone by leaving them homeless and stranded – if necessary we will pay for emergency housing out of our own resources if family, local councils and housing associations cannot provide a roof.
The impact of this work is huge. For 16 months, St Giles Trust were funded by The London Probation service to provide post-release support to prison leavers returning to London. During this time over 1,500 prison leavers were referred to the service and we successfully housed over 1,000 of them who would have had nowhere to go otherwise. Only a handful were recalled to prison during this time.
Unfortunately, funding for this service came to an end. We are still providing an ad hoc version through various other smaller projects we have been able to get up and running to pick up the huge levels of unmet need. However, these are operating under considerable pressure and are no replacement for a dedicated service which provides a single point of contact for anyone leaving prison requiring support.
That is why we are calling for everyone who needs help on release from prison to be provided with the opportunity to be met and supported by someone who can help them get established outside and negotiate the rocky road to resettlement. Someone who has had a spell in prison will face huge barriers– many are homeless, connections with friends and family have often broken down and they may face discrimination when looking for employment or training.
Someone who commits a crime deserves to be punished – that is without question. But for too long now we have set ex-prisoners up to fail once they are released back into the community. Continuing to judge and discriminate against ex-offenders after they have finished their sentence serves no-one and ensures a one-way ticket back to prison, with all the associated costs and misery this brings. Surely everyone deserves a second chance?
Rob Owen,
Chief Executive, St Giles Trust
www.stgilestrust.org.uk
Monday, 22 February 2010
Why did The Nationwide Foundation fund the production of the film?
Our interest in and commitment to supporting the rehabilitation of young offenders began in 2005. The Nationwide Foundation is grant-making charity, which provides funding to other charities and at that time we approved six grants to charities working to reduce reoffending and provide transition and resettlement support for young people leaving custody.Three of these charities were: Addaction, Construction Youth Trust and Safer Wales.
Initially the charities worked on their own projects, but we quickly recognised that they shared many goals and were each tackling the same obstacles in trying to provide an accurate portrayal of young offenders.
We decided to bring the charities together to foster a collaborative working relationship. We wanted the charities to share expertise and best-practice, and consider how they could collectively effect change.
By working together, the charities proposed that they challenge mainstream stereotypes about young offenders and influence change through the production of an informative, educational and emotive documentary.
Impressed with the project plan and keen to encourage meaningful partnership working in the charity sector, we provided the funding to create the film, which has become the Fear Factory.
The Nationwide Foundation has not influenced the charities or the film makers, Spirit Level Film on the content of the documentary, except to state from the outset that the aim was to educate and bring about positive change. This would reduce reoffending among young offenders and provide them with more opportunities to embrace a life free from crime, ultimately creating safer communities for us all to live in.
We eagerly look forward to seeing substantial, long-lasting benefits as a result of the project we have invested in. We want to see benefits both for the young people currently in and exiting the prison, as well as those who may benefit from alternative, non-custodial intervention.
Lisa Parker
Chief Executive
The Nationwide Foundation
To find out more about the work of the Nationwide Foundation, please visit: www.nationwidefoundation.org.uk
Initially the charities worked on their own projects, but we quickly recognised that they shared many goals and were each tackling the same obstacles in trying to provide an accurate portrayal of young offenders.
We decided to bring the charities together to foster a collaborative working relationship. We wanted the charities to share expertise and best-practice, and consider how they could collectively effect change.
By working together, the charities proposed that they challenge mainstream stereotypes about young offenders and influence change through the production of an informative, educational and emotive documentary.
Impressed with the project plan and keen to encourage meaningful partnership working in the charity sector, we provided the funding to create the film, which has become the Fear Factory.
The Nationwide Foundation has not influenced the charities or the film makers, Spirit Level Film on the content of the documentary, except to state from the outset that the aim was to educate and bring about positive change. This would reduce reoffending among young offenders and provide them with more opportunities to embrace a life free from crime, ultimately creating safer communities for us all to live in.
We eagerly look forward to seeing substantial, long-lasting benefits as a result of the project we have invested in. We want to see benefits both for the young people currently in and exiting the prison, as well as those who may benefit from alternative, non-custodial intervention.
Lisa Parker
Chief Executive
The Nationwide Foundation
To find out more about the work of the Nationwide Foundation, please visit: www.nationwidefoundation.org.uk
Friday, 19 February 2010
Association of Panel Members
From 1909 until 2001, the primary role for community participation in the youth justice system has been as volunteer magistrates delivering summary justice to young people, with the ultimate sanction of imprisonment to teach lessons which - somehow- prevent their future offending. Youth Offending Panels are now in their 10th year of operating through directly engaging community volunteers in the rehabilitation of young people pleading guilty to behaviour which cross the boundaries of criminality, through Referral Orders delivering restorative justice.
The revised system, designed to deliver support services at one-stop-shops provided by newly-configured Youth Offending Teams, was greeted with euphoria and led to description of Panels by the then Youth Justice Board Chair, Rod Morgan, as the jewel in the crown. Yet the criminal justice floodgate was opened to children aged from 11, with the decade depicted as a crime-wave committed by ‘feral’ teenagers, and Panels confined to the backwaters as a ‘soft’ or superfluous diversion from jails accommodating up to 3000 under-18’s, to receive their just desserts.
Whilst conventional wisdom attributes children’s crime to moral deficits, easily remedied by the short, sharp shock of being ‘sent-down’, Community Panel Members recognise that behind the court orders lie stories of disastrous role models, unfulfilled potential, and institutional failures - only to be compounded through incarceration. We seek to challenge these children’s behaviour by ensuring that victims become the jury and amends are made; by agreeing contracts to engage support services to ensure that contextual factors which led to the crime are addressed. Yet despite an alarming reoffending rate for custodial sentences (75%) the community justice epitomized in Panel Members faces a constant challenge to increase magistrates’ confidence in community sentences - perceived as only applicable to trivial crimes, despite the lowest reoffending rate of all community sentences (45%).
This topsy-turvy position has finally been highlighted in recent excellent work by penal reformers, with sentencers’ confidence in custody being questioned by policy makers at all levels. Not least all 4 Children’s Commissioners, responsible for upholding the Human Rights of children in the United Kingdom. The economics of incarcerating young people (£325m) when weighed against an average 75% risk of re-offending upon release, simply don’t make sense.
At the community level, the Association of Panel Members (AOPM) has become an apologist for Restorative Youth Justice. With few resources other than the goodwill of volunteers, we beat the drum in favour of victim participation in solutions to the harm caused by young people in our communities; in favour of interventions targeted towards the social, emotional and behavioural deficits which disproportionately affect these children. And we are very reluctant witnesses to the sheer numbers of young people left behind by the education system, only to resurface in the custody suite.
Panel Members understand the ability of young people to come good in time with patient, affirming (but not condoning) adult support, as opposed to condemnation. We want to celebrate the sheer guts and determination it takes for young people, who went off the rails, to get back on track working with YOTs in partnership with members of their community. As volunteers, Panel Members are disinterested, dispassionate and freethinking participants in the complex process of corporate parenting, who know that our role is challenging to entrenched traditions. We are therefore a wild card in the pack, which sometimes renders our partnerships unstable. By keeping sight of the goal, we help children to move away from the so-called revolving door, by delivering the urban equivalent of the African saying; ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child.’
Baroness Neuberger’s 2009 review of volunteering in the criminal justice system provides the last word:
"A lack of investment in volunteer management inevitably results in volunteers having a bad experience. During the course of my research I have come across many cases of volunteers who have had a negative experience, as a direct result of poor investment in their management. This is more common where a statutory volunteer role is new, for instance in the case of panel members on Youth Offending Teams. The agency is still adapting to these changes and a supportive culture is still being developed. The Youth Justice Board has worked on a number of initiatives to support best practice in managing volunteers. Nevertheless, Government should be taking this very seriously if they wish Panel Members to stay and play a key role."
Sandra Beeton
Chair
Association of Panel Members (AOPM)
The revised system, designed to deliver support services at one-stop-shops provided by newly-configured Youth Offending Teams, was greeted with euphoria and led to description of Panels by the then Youth Justice Board Chair, Rod Morgan, as the jewel in the crown. Yet the criminal justice floodgate was opened to children aged from 11, with the decade depicted as a crime-wave committed by ‘feral’ teenagers, and Panels confined to the backwaters as a ‘soft’ or superfluous diversion from jails accommodating up to 3000 under-18’s, to receive their just desserts.
Whilst conventional wisdom attributes children’s crime to moral deficits, easily remedied by the short, sharp shock of being ‘sent-down’, Community Panel Members recognise that behind the court orders lie stories of disastrous role models, unfulfilled potential, and institutional failures - only to be compounded through incarceration. We seek to challenge these children’s behaviour by ensuring that victims become the jury and amends are made; by agreeing contracts to engage support services to ensure that contextual factors which led to the crime are addressed. Yet despite an alarming reoffending rate for custodial sentences (75%) the community justice epitomized in Panel Members faces a constant challenge to increase magistrates’ confidence in community sentences - perceived as only applicable to trivial crimes, despite the lowest reoffending rate of all community sentences (45%).
This topsy-turvy position has finally been highlighted in recent excellent work by penal reformers, with sentencers’ confidence in custody being questioned by policy makers at all levels. Not least all 4 Children’s Commissioners, responsible for upholding the Human Rights of children in the United Kingdom. The economics of incarcerating young people (£325m) when weighed against an average 75% risk of re-offending upon release, simply don’t make sense.
At the community level, the Association of Panel Members (AOPM) has become an apologist for Restorative Youth Justice. With few resources other than the goodwill of volunteers, we beat the drum in favour of victim participation in solutions to the harm caused by young people in our communities; in favour of interventions targeted towards the social, emotional and behavioural deficits which disproportionately affect these children. And we are very reluctant witnesses to the sheer numbers of young people left behind by the education system, only to resurface in the custody suite.
Panel Members understand the ability of young people to come good in time with patient, affirming (but not condoning) adult support, as opposed to condemnation. We want to celebrate the sheer guts and determination it takes for young people, who went off the rails, to get back on track working with YOTs in partnership with members of their community. As volunteers, Panel Members are disinterested, dispassionate and freethinking participants in the complex process of corporate parenting, who know that our role is challenging to entrenched traditions. We are therefore a wild card in the pack, which sometimes renders our partnerships unstable. By keeping sight of the goal, we help children to move away from the so-called revolving door, by delivering the urban equivalent of the African saying; ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child.’
Baroness Neuberger’s 2009 review of volunteering in the criminal justice system provides the last word:
"A lack of investment in volunteer management inevitably results in volunteers having a bad experience. During the course of my research I have come across many cases of volunteers who have had a negative experience, as a direct result of poor investment in their management. This is more common where a statutory volunteer role is new, for instance in the case of panel members on Youth Offending Teams. The agency is still adapting to these changes and a supportive culture is still being developed. The Youth Justice Board has worked on a number of initiatives to support best practice in managing volunteers. Nevertheless, Government should be taking this very seriously if they wish Panel Members to stay and play a key role."
Sandra Beeton
Chair
Association of Panel Members (AOPM)
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
What about girls?
One aspect of youth justice which is often sidelined in debate about reform is the situation of girls. Increasing numbers of young women are becoming caught up in a system which has been designed with the needs and offending patterns of boys in mind. There has been an overall failure to develop a gender-sensitive youth justice system, and there is a pressing need for this to change.
Though there does not appear to be a rise in their offending rates, girls are finding themselves drawn in the criminal justice system more frequently and are being convicted at a younger age. Responses to their offending tend to be more interventionist than for boys, resulting in larger numbers appearing in court. It is suggested that young women are being prosecuted for activities that, previously, they would not have, and the use of custody for girls has risen sharply.
These rising numbers, and the picture painted in the media of girls and young women as anti-social binge-drinkers, have created the popular misconception that girls’ offending and anti-social behaviour are becoming more prolific, more violent and generally spiralling out of control. The Government’s punitive approach to youth offending had obscured the particular vulnerabilities of these girls and young women.
While girls and young women caught up in the criminal justice system share many similar social problems to boys, there are also distinct differences which pose different challenges and which require different treatment and expertise. The experience of custody also affects boys and girls differently and inevitably their response to youth offender management. Girls who offend have often suffered from a history of physical and sexual abuse, as well as disruptive or troubled family backgrounds. Whilst there is no one route in to the criminal justice system, girls tend to have followed a general path from achieving little at school as a result of early disadvantage and social exclusion, leading to their subsequent disengagement, resulting in a lack of basic skills or qualifications, and a lack of hope for the future.
Young women offenders, as well as those at risk of offending, experience greater levels of emotional problems than boys, and many suffer from cripplingly low levels of self esteem. They experience extremely high rates of self harm, with levels almost twice that of the adult female population. Many have been in care, or have substance misuse problems, and they display higher than average mental health needs than the general population. Many who are taken into custody also suffer from the additional trauma of being separated, not only from their support networks, but from their own children.
By the time a girl or young woman comes into contact with the criminal justice system she is likely to have already experienced multiple problems in her life, and to have come from a deprived and socio-economically marginalised community. Taking them into custody clearly is not working to reduce offending. Instead it invariably exacerbates the problems they may be experiencing. These young women are vulnerable and victimised themselves, and in desperate need of care and support. With the right, targeted and personalised help they can be empowered to find another path and build a better future.
The average time between a girl’s first caution and being taken in to custody is half that of boys. This is part of the reason that early positive intervention is particularly critical for girls. There is a short space of time in which a girl can be diverted away from involvement in offending before she becomes formally involved in the youth justice system. The younger a girl is when this happens, the more damaging the effects on her.
Whilst much needed research has been done into the needs and experiences of adult women caught up in the criminal justice system, girls tend to have been subsumed under the category of ‘youth’ offending and not enough is known about them and what really does work. What we do know suggests that the more successful approaches include those that are specifically designed around the needs of the individual, are holistic in approach, involve the voices of young women and work positively with female peer groups.
As a society we are failing so many disadvantaged young women by not enabling them to achieve their full potential. We need to find new approaches to girls’ offending, as well as recognising the value of existing alternatives. If we are to move forward with a criminal justice strategy based on sound evidence, there is a real need to take in to account the voices and experiences of girls in order to create a system that is sensitive to gender and responsive to need.
About YWCA England & Wales
YWCA’s vision is that all girls and women, in particular those living in the most disadvantaged and deprived areas across England and Wales, are able to overcome the prejudice and barriers they face so that they can fulfil their potential.
YWCA provides support, guidance and learning opportunities for marginalised girls and women which are designed with their specific needs in mind. We also campaign with them to combat the discrimination and disadvantage they face.
Our women’s centres have evolved in recognition of the importance that girls and women place on being able to focus on their issues in an environment that is women-only and safe, and respectful of their diverse needs.
Though there does not appear to be a rise in their offending rates, girls are finding themselves drawn in the criminal justice system more frequently and are being convicted at a younger age. Responses to their offending tend to be more interventionist than for boys, resulting in larger numbers appearing in court. It is suggested that young women are being prosecuted for activities that, previously, they would not have, and the use of custody for girls has risen sharply.
These rising numbers, and the picture painted in the media of girls and young women as anti-social binge-drinkers, have created the popular misconception that girls’ offending and anti-social behaviour are becoming more prolific, more violent and generally spiralling out of control. The Government’s punitive approach to youth offending had obscured the particular vulnerabilities of these girls and young women.
While girls and young women caught up in the criminal justice system share many similar social problems to boys, there are also distinct differences which pose different challenges and which require different treatment and expertise. The experience of custody also affects boys and girls differently and inevitably their response to youth offender management. Girls who offend have often suffered from a history of physical and sexual abuse, as well as disruptive or troubled family backgrounds. Whilst there is no one route in to the criminal justice system, girls tend to have followed a general path from achieving little at school as a result of early disadvantage and social exclusion, leading to their subsequent disengagement, resulting in a lack of basic skills or qualifications, and a lack of hope for the future.
Young women offenders, as well as those at risk of offending, experience greater levels of emotional problems than boys, and many suffer from cripplingly low levels of self esteem. They experience extremely high rates of self harm, with levels almost twice that of the adult female population. Many have been in care, or have substance misuse problems, and they display higher than average mental health needs than the general population. Many who are taken into custody also suffer from the additional trauma of being separated, not only from their support networks, but from their own children.
By the time a girl or young woman comes into contact with the criminal justice system she is likely to have already experienced multiple problems in her life, and to have come from a deprived and socio-economically marginalised community. Taking them into custody clearly is not working to reduce offending. Instead it invariably exacerbates the problems they may be experiencing. These young women are vulnerable and victimised themselves, and in desperate need of care and support. With the right, targeted and personalised help they can be empowered to find another path and build a better future.
The average time between a girl’s first caution and being taken in to custody is half that of boys. This is part of the reason that early positive intervention is particularly critical for girls. There is a short space of time in which a girl can be diverted away from involvement in offending before she becomes formally involved in the youth justice system. The younger a girl is when this happens, the more damaging the effects on her.
Whilst much needed research has been done into the needs and experiences of adult women caught up in the criminal justice system, girls tend to have been subsumed under the category of ‘youth’ offending and not enough is known about them and what really does work. What we do know suggests that the more successful approaches include those that are specifically designed around the needs of the individual, are holistic in approach, involve the voices of young women and work positively with female peer groups.
As a society we are failing so many disadvantaged young women by not enabling them to achieve their full potential. We need to find new approaches to girls’ offending, as well as recognising the value of existing alternatives. If we are to move forward with a criminal justice strategy based on sound evidence, there is a real need to take in to account the voices and experiences of girls in order to create a system that is sensitive to gender and responsive to need.
About YWCA England & Wales
YWCA’s vision is that all girls and women, in particular those living in the most disadvantaged and deprived areas across England and Wales, are able to overcome the prejudice and barriers they face so that they can fulfil their potential.
YWCA provides support, guidance and learning opportunities for marginalised girls and women which are designed with their specific needs in mind. We also campaign with them to combat the discrimination and disadvantage they face.
Our women’s centres have evolved in recognition of the importance that girls and women place on being able to focus on their issues in an environment that is women-only and safe, and respectful of their diverse needs.
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