Transforming Youth Custody

This report describes the Government's plans for placing high quality education at the centre of youth custody. Plans to reform youth custody will see young people appropriately punished while at the same time learning to take responsibility for their actions and gaining the skills and qualifications they need to lead productive, law-abiding lives. Secure Colleges would provide education in a period of detention rather than detention with education as an afterthought. The consultation paper covers: key information on youth custody and the young people held there; the case for change; our vision for Secure Colleges which place education at the heart of the system. The main areas for consideration by all respondents are: tailoring education to young people in custody; meeting the wider needs of young people in custody; closing the gap between custody and community; the physical environment and meeting demand; a focus on outcomes. All responses should be submitted by 30 April 2013

Dated January 2014. Government response to consultation, published February 2013 (ISBN 9780101879224)

In 1997 the newly modernized Labour party swept into power promising a radical overhaul of the youth justice system. The creation of inter-agency Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) for the delivery of youth justice services were the cornerstone of the new approach. These new YOTs were designed to tackle an 'excuse culture' that was allegedto pervade the youth justice system and aimed to encourage the emergence of a shared culture among youth justice practitioners from different agencies. The transformation of the youth justice system brought about a period of intense disruption for the practitioners working within it. The nature and purpose of contemporary youth justice work was called into question and wider issues of occupational identity and culture became of crucial importance. Through a detailed ethnographic study of the formation of a YOT this book explores a previously neglected area of organisational cultures in criminal justice. It examines the nature of occupational culture and professional identity through the lived experience of youth justice professionals in this time of transition and change.It shows how profound and complex of the effects of organisational change are, and the fundamental challenges it raises for practitioners' sense of professional identity and vocation. Transforming Youth Justice makes a highly significant contribution not only to the way that professional cultures are understood in criminal justice, but to an understanding of the often dissonant relationship between policy and practice.

The Ministry of Justice are transforming how they manage offenders, so that they are both punished when they break the law, and are also more supported to get their chaotic lives back on track. They now want to make sure that these same principles are applied to the way young adults in custody are managed. Young adults (18-20 year olds) who are held in custody are usually accommodated in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) rather than adult prisons. The context in which this was an effective means of managing this group has changed, and the current approach is no longer appropriate or effective. They are proposing a new approach to managing young adults that takes into account the challenges of this age group as well as ensuring they benefit from wider reforms. Many young adults are still maturing and sometimes lack the skills to negotiate complex social situations. When large numbers of people in this age group are held together, they can become so volatile it becomes difficult for staff to manage them. If this continues, there is a danger that the experience of young adults in custody will become more about containment and less about rehabilitation and supporting them to desist from offending. In the new framework, it is proposed that all young adults will be accommodated in mixed institutions, where resources are targeted on their risks and rehabilitation and resettlement needs. The aim is to ensure that their time in custody is both safe and effective.

Explores the nature of occupational culture, team membership and professional identity through the lived experience of youth justice professionals in the time of transition and change after Crime and Disorder Act 1998 was passed. It also shows how profound and complex the effects of this organisational change were.

This handbook brings together the knowledge on juvenile imprisonment to develop a global, synthesized view of the impact of imprisonment on children and young people. There are a growing number of scholars around the world who have conducted in-depth, qualitative research inside of youth prisons, and about young people incarcerated in adult prisons, and yet this research has never been synthesized or compiled. This book is organized around several core themes including: conditions of confinement, relationships in confinement, gender/sexuality and identity, perspectives on juvenile facility staff, reentry from youth prisons, young people’s experiences in adult prisons, and new models and perspectives on juvenile imprisonment. This handbook seeks to educate students, scholars, and policymakers about the role of incarceration in young people’s lives, from an empirically-informed, critical, and global perspective.

Building upon the success of the first edition, this second - and substantially revised - edition of Youth Crime and Justice comprises a range of cutting-edge contributions from leading national and international researchers. The book: Situates youth crime and youth justice within historical and social-structural contexts; Critically examines policy and practice trends and their relation to knowledge and ‘evidence’; and Presents a forward looking vision of a rights compliant youth justice with integrity. An authoritative and accessible book, Youth Crime and Justice (2nd ed) provides a coherent, comprehensive and fully up-to-date analysis of contemporary developments and debates. A must for researchers, teachers, students and practitioners.

Public authorities have a duty to ensure looked after children are not at greater risk of being drawn into the criminal justice system than other children. The relevant authorities must continue to support looked after children and care leavers when they are in, and when they leave, custody. The substantial decrease since 2006/07 in the number of young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time is welcomed but looked after children have not benefited from this shift to the same extent as other children. The Youth Justice Board has done excellent work to halve the youth custodial population over the past decade but continues to spend £246 million a year detaining a small fraction of young offenders. Recommendations include: a statutory threshold to enshrine in legislation the principle that only the most serious and prolific young offenders should be placed in custody; devolving the custody budget to enable local authorities to invest in effective alternatives to custody; and more action to reduce the number of young people who breach the terms of their community sentences and the number of young black men in custody. The aim of improving the basic literacy of offenders, as outlined in the Transforming Youth Custody consultation paper is endorsed, but is it most useful to focus resources on the secure estate, given that the average length of stay is currently 79 days? The greater focus should be on improving transition between custody and the community, and on improving provision in the community and incentivising schools and colleges to take back difficult students.