We can’t fix crime with a prison cell.. we have got to fix the criminals first
Lawyer calls for justice system overhaul
Mark McGivern Scottish lawyers are being called on to weigh up the massive role played by childhood trauma in crime.
Leading solicitor Iain Smith is calling for a new “smart justice” approach that moves away from a revolving door of slamming offenders in jail without treating the reasons for them committing crime, which leads to more offending.
Smith has consulted with 500 up- and- coming Scots lawyers, many of whom were unaware of massive evidence that suggests events such as childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence and bereavement can lead inevitably to drug addiction, mental health issues and crime in later life.
He has partnered with awardwinning f ilmmaker Stephen Bennett, whose documentary Warriors from 2011 wi l l be screened at the Law Society of Scotland’s annual conference this Thursday.
Warriors fol lowed up on Bennett’s 2007 film The Boys Of Ballikinrain, shot within care homes. The later work found that all but one of the care home boys ended up going to prison – leading most to believe the care home culture caused the criminality.
Recent research and great strides made by Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit has led to a solid understanding that the future chaos was pre- ordained by what happened in the years before the boys entered care.
Smith, Scotland’s lawyer of the year, said: “We are talking about what I refer to as ‘smart justice’, in that our ultimate aim should be to reduce crime through understanding trauma better.
“Our system, through the care system, justice system and prison system, is al l real ly about retribution and punishment and there’s little understanding of the basics of trauma.
“If we had that , what we should be concentrating on is repai r and rehabi l itation and help and things that lawyers feel very uncomfortable talking about.
“A s a system, we are very awkward in talking about stuff like ch i ld sex ua l abuse, neg lect , physical violence, ber eavement and addiction and all the things that may have impacted harshly on the people standing in the dock.”
Smith said he had been moved hugely by the Warriors documentary and the 2011 follow- up, which was narrated by Bradley Noon, one of the original “stars”. He said:
“When you watch Bradley in the film coming to the realisation that he wasn’t and isn’t bad, he arrives at a real epiphany.
“This powerfully underlined my bel ief that people aren’t necessarily bad, they just do bad things. We have to do more to understand why that happens if we want to reduce crime and help people who are carrying around the weight of these pretty severe traumas. We accept, for instance, in a very high proportion of casescas people take heroin and alcoholalc to dull the pain of sexualsex abuse and, if we look underund the bonnet of addiction, we willw often see the machinery of misery.mi
“TheTh sensible response should be oneon of compassion and that’s a diffidifficult point to get across and a shift won’t happen overnight. “That’sTha why we are targeting young lawyers, the ones coming through, who are open-minded, progressive and willing to listen.” Smith has contacted 500 lawyers over five weeks and claims the response has been huge, with many asking how they can help. He said: “The immediate consequence is that people in our system will stop seeing people before the courts as neds, junkies and scum. They will see that the people we see are not necessarily bad but have done bad things.” Smith added that he is “hugely conscious” that serious crimes still require punishment.