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We'll create new youth-crime jail to break cycle of violence
David Cohen and Katharine Barney31.10.08
MAYOR Boris Johnson will launch a radical plan to combat youth offending, with a 150-bed prison for first-time criminals, the Evening Standard has learned.
The aim of the unit would be to break the cycle of reoffending by giving inmates positive role models.
But it represents a dramatic break with Conservative criminal justice policy and was disclosed as the Mayor's deputy in charge of policing, Kit Malthouse, spoke of the failure of "the old macho days" of "lock 'em up and throw away the key".
In an outspoken interview with the Standard, Mr Malthouse signalled that a new knife and youth crime strategy being launched on Monday will be a dramatic break with past policy.
He said: "To send a 16-year-old boy to Feltham [Young Offender Institute] for three months might sound like a good idea, but locking him up with hardened criminals just teaches him to become a better criminal and makes things worse. We've got to be smarter than that and so we've come up with a better solution.
"We need to do everything to ensure they are employable as say [apprentice] electricians or engineers when they come out, because every time we lock them up for three months, it costs us £90,000, and every time they reoffend it's harder to pull them back into society."
James Cleverly, deputy leader of the Tories on the London Assembly, said the Mayor was holding talks with the Ministry of Justice to use the renovated Cookham Wood Young Offender Institute in Kent. Alternatively, a separate wing of another prison, segregated from other inmates, could be used.
Currently, a quarter of young criminals with no previous convictions re-offend, compared with 42 per cent of those who have one or two offences behind them.
And 82 per cent of young offenders who have more than 10 previous convictions break the law again. Mr Johnson says he wants to protect first-time inmates who could be tempted into crime if they rub shoulders with repeat offenders in mainstream jails. Instead, they would be given mentors such as teachers, gym instructors and prison officers.
Mr Cleverly told the Standard: "We're going to say to these people: 'This is your opportunity. You can either grab it with both hands and turn your life around, or you've wasted it.' There will be no second chances."
The Mayor is also looking at ways to bring potential employers into the facility to talk about job prospects when young people leave. City Hall hopes the new policy will save taxpayers millions of pounds. The average cost of a career criminal to the justice system is £800,000.
The proposal comes amid fears of escalating violent crime; 27 teenagers have been killed in the capital so far this year compared with 26 last year.
Mr Malthouse attacked youth justice policy going as far back as 1993 when the Conservatives were in power. "You can chart the rise in youth violence back to a single moment, the murder of James Bulger in 1993, after which successive governments took a decision to lock up more and more young people," he said.
"After that, crimes that passed as mischief for generations suddenly became anti-social behaviour and the number of youths imprisoned rose dramatically. We criminalised a whole section of society and along the way we inculcated an intolerance of young people.
"The borough commander in Bromley tells me that when it snows they get four-hundred 999 calls about kids throwing snowballs. This is what it's come to it's crazy!"
On Monday he and Mr Johnson will also announce a further five key measures to tackle the long-term social factors behind youth crime.
"You can correlate kids who are involved in youth violence with underattainment and lack of progression at school, and that's why we have a new initiative to boost literacy and numeracy among vulnerable children," said Mr Malthouse.
"Also, statistically, children in care are more likely to go to prison than to university and we need to address that. There is rather a lot of money being spent on the wrong things, like expensive DJ equipment to turn kids into rappers: we would prefer them to read and write first."
Mr Johnson's plan puts him at odds with national policy. The Tories do not differentiate between first time and repeat offenders and have no specific plans on mentoring in youth offender institutions.
Mr Cleverly said it was crucial to keep ministers onside if the plans were to go ahead: "We have to do it with the goodwill of the Ministry of Justice and don't want to alienate them for the sake of political point scoring."
Reader views (7)
I've randomly encountered people who were trouble makers at school, left to lead a life of crime and got caught, were sent to jail and had the life scared out them, left jail, swore never to go back and lead fulfilling crime free lives now. Why is this? Because it was in the 80's before the political correctness nonsense came in. The very idea of slopping out makes them gag to this day, they say it was the most repulsive and demeaning thing you can do to someone.
- Bob, Cheam
The idea of punishment, deterrance, retribution etc assumes that persistent offenders are logical and reasonable and act in their own best interests. That assumption must be re-examined in the light of rising crime coinciding with record levels of imprisonment. The more interesting question is "why do most people obey laws" rather than "why do some people disobey laws". If you can work out why so many people are obedient to a broken system, then you can tackle the question of crime.
- Neil, london uk, Airstrip ONE .
Tuck them in with a Teddy. The only reason they are first time offenders is this is the first time they have been caught and prosecuted. Dartmoor, breaking rocks would have a better effect than all these ostriches pretending that they can save this scum.
- Frederick, London, UK
The quickest way to turn thier life around is to introduce young offender prisons as they do in some states in American. Chain them up, give them bread and water, and make them break rocks. When they are not breaking rocks teach them something of benefit to them to get a job on release. If its too expensive to keep them in prison (they do it on the cheap in the USA, unlike here at £38,000 per inmate per year), give them ten of the cat'o'nine tails. I can reassure you they will never, ever re-offend again after having that inflicted upon them. You must ensure though, that they have a job to go to on release so they're too tired to get up to any mischief.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
The trouble is the punishment for this low level antisocial crime never deters. Too often, youths with multiple convictions are simply let off with cautions or community service for crimes such as GBH, robbery etc.
At the same time we send to jail those who won't pay their council tax or TV licence out of principal and persecute people for putting the wrong rubbish in the wrong bin.
The only way to solve this is to implement a "three-strikes-and-you-are-out" policy. No more cautions, no more community service. Commit a anti-social or serious crime and you go to jail. Do it again and go to jail for double the first time. Do it a third and you don't come out. Ever.
Problem solved.
Now build some more prisons. Eventually people will begin to realise that crime doesn't pay.
And while we are at it, none of this £80 fine for driving without tax/insurance/MOT etc. Your fine should be £5000 plus the cost of all the stuff you should have paid for in the first place. Kill someone due to dangerous driving, you go to prison for 10+ years and then you are banned from driving for life.
Tough on crime, tough on those who cause crime.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Hard Labour is the only answer! We should have these young offenders cleaning up graffiti and litter from the streets, parks; at least they would be giving something back to the community and maybe this would deter them from re-offending. Either way society benefits from it.
- Brandon Thomas, London UK
According to the Home Office's own figures, punishment has absolutely no effect on rates of crime; neither jail nor "ASBOS", nor more coppers on the streets, has the slightest impact on criminality and crime. Remember, this is the Home Office's OWN research. Why then, are we seduced by offers of yet more punishment and ever-tougher penalties? It's not as if any of it works or anything!
- Neil, london uk, Airstrip ONE .
