Young spared jail to make room for violent offenders
YOUNG repeat offenders are to be spared prison to free up space for violent criminals to serve longer terms. Under new proposals, offenders under the age of 25 who have committed non-violent crimes will be asked to attend counselling or youth groups rather than go to jail. The “New Generation Policing” policy has been developed by the charity Revolving Doors Agency, and will be implemented initially by seven UK police forces.
The charity said that if adopted nationally, around 15,000 “low-level” crimes could be dealt with without charging young offenders. It suggests including crimes such as motor vehicle theft, benefit fraud, class A drugs possession and intentional harassment.
Police and Crime Commissioners said it would reduce the number of short-term sentences, and open up the capacity for longer sentences for violent offenders. A similar model of “diverting”
low-level offenders into more stringent community schemes is expected to be outlined this month in a government white paper which will also introduce tougher sentences for more serious crimes.
Keith Hunter, Humberside PCC, said that police forces had to intervene to help young offenders from the care system, as local councils are not up to the task. “There is an obligation on local authorities to support care leavers beyond the age of 18, but the reality is that that very rarely occurs,” he said.
“The prison system is clogged up with people who’ve committed relatively minor offences that could be punished and rehabilitated in other ways that are much less expensive. Then prison could be used to properly punish longer sentences.”
Out of court action is more common for under-18s, but Revolving Doors want leniency extended to the age of 25. It said it was up to police discretion when it was appropriate to use.
Burcu Borysik, Revolving Doors policy manager, said: “We know that brain maturation continues up until 25. Our analysis suggests that the third and fourth offence is a critical moment between
someone who offends, then goes out of crime, and someone who offends and might stay in the criminal justice system.”
Lord Willy Bach, Leicestershire PCC, said: “The police, generally, will think this is a sensible idea. The way the prison system works at the moment encourages people to return to prison rather than the opposite.”
David Davis, the former shadow home secretary whose constituency is in Humberside. which will take part in the scheme, said: “Between the ages of 18 and 30 is when the most serious crimes are committed.
“What tends to happen is a lot of rather soggy thinking of ‘We’ll give them a community sentence, and they won’t meet other criminals’. Yes they will, they’ll meet them on the community sentence rather than in prison.”