'Public risk' from criminals scheme

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The Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP), which cost £32 million between 2005-2007, is a multimillion-pound initiative to keep the worst young offenders out of custody.

Under the scheme, criminals aged between 10 and 17 are allowed to stay living at home after committing a series of crimes that, if they were adults, could earn them 14 years in jail.

The offenders' crimes include grievous bodily harm, robbery and burglary.

The programme was designed to bring structure to young offenders' lives, tackle the things that make them turn to crime and focus on areas worst affected by street crime.

But it is failing to either protect the public or rehabilitate the youngsters, according to researchers at the University of Portsmouth.

During the study, more than 90% committed further crimes after their period of supervision and surveillance had ended.

And many said that they would have preferred to have been sent to jail because they would have been removed from their immediate circle of criminal friends and given them a chance to learn a trade.

The study found that the main failings of the ISSP were that it provided inadequate surveillance to protect the public and the scheme was not rigorously enforced.

The researchers also found that it did not have a positive effect on offenders' attitudes, the supervision given was not appropriate for the offenders' ages and did not bring structure or improved life chances for the offenders.