David Lammy promises 25% cut in number of children jailed while they await trial | UK criminal justice
David Lammy has pledged to cut the number of children held in prison awaiting trial by a quarter as part of an overhaul of youth justice rules that could also end lifetime criminal records for under-18s.
The justice minister is publishing a white paper on Monday in which he says he will reduce the number of children in prison; He admits this was his biggest fear growing up at Tottenham in the 1980s.
Arguing that prisons can cause permanent damage to children’s lives, deputy prime minister Lammy is promising to reduce the use of detention and short sentences for those under 18.
The Ministry of Justice (Ministry of Justice) will also consult on fining or even imprisoning parents who fail to keep their children away from crime.
He said: “Growing up in Tottenham in the 1980s, my biggest fear was going to prison. This may sound counterintuitive but in reality that was the fate of many young Black boys like me.”
“You saw it happen slowly at first. People missed school, got into little trouble, started hanging out with the wrong crowd. Nobody stepped in to pull them back. To us, going to prison didn’t seem shocking or distant. It was almost inevitable.”
“I could have been one of them, but I was lucky to get a scholarship to a public boarding school, which gave me an outlet that others never had.
“I often think: ‘It is only by the grace of God that I go there.’ Even today, the line between a successful child and a child whose life is ruined is often painfully thin.”
Lammy, 53, argued that imprisoning children makes them more likely to commit crimes in the future. “For the most serious crimes, detention will always be necessary to protect the public and that will never change,” he said.
“But for many children, even a brief spell indoors can cause permanent damage, disrupting the most formative years of their lives and sometimes exposing them to further violence and criminal influence.”
Measures set out on Monday include spending an extra £15 million a year on funding teams of people working with children who are considered to be at risk of offending, for example if they have been given an antisocial behavior order (asbo).
Lammy promises to reduce the detention of people under the age of 18 by 25 percent by the end of the parliament and end it completely. It will allow judges to impose a wider range of community sentences in a bid to further reduce the number of children in prison.
Officials say these two measures together will reduce the number of youth in prison by 20%. Lammy is also promising to create a new child criminal exploitation offense that will punish adults who encourage children to commit crimes.
His department will pilot the use of “youth intervention courts,” where judges and support workers will create individually tailored plans for young people.
This may include requiring a child to comply with certain health or educational requirements, as well as keeping them under close monitoring to prevent repeat offending.
In addition, Lammy is launching a consultation on whether children will have to disclose their criminal records for the rest of their lives; This is an issue Lammy criticized in 2017 as part of her review of Black, Asian and ethnic minorities in the justice system.
“We will review how crimes committed in childhood appear on criminal records, because a mistake made at 13 should not turn into a lifetime of lost chances behind closed doors,” he said.
Ministry of Justice figures show that 80% of prolific offenders committed their first crime as children, while two-thirds of those released from custody reoffend within a year.
Children’s commissioner Rachel de Souza said: “I have been consistently clear that the youth justice system needs to be reformed.
“We must create an approach that keeps children safe, steers them away from crime wherever possible and prioritizes meaningful behavior change.”
