The custodial labyrinth
| Pages | 115-124 |
| Date | 17 June 2011 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466661111149411 |
| Published date | 17 June 2011 |
| Author | John Pitts,Malcolm Stevens |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
The custodial labyrinth
John Pitts and Malcolm Stevens
Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to consider the youth justice system from a custody perspective.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the recent history of the secure estate and
youth justice in England and Wales, arguing that the present system is far too large, complex and costly
and contains perverse incentives to place vulnerable young people in low-cost but dangerously
inappropriate settings.
Findings – The paper argues that the present, labyrinthine arrangements, which are in large part,
a product of political posturing and administrative and fiscal expediency,have produced a system that
is too large and in which most institutional regimes are unresponsive to the needs of these children and,
as a result, fail to achieve their rehabilitative objectives.
Originality/value – It is contended that if existing child care and criminal justice legislation were fully
implemented, and policy and practice were aligned with international children’s rights conventions,
we would see a greater emphasis on prevention and diversion at the ‘‘front end’’ of the system and
‘‘regime change’’ at the ‘ ‘back end’’.
Keywords Youth, Justice, Police custody, Human rights
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
There is and never has been, in my opinion, any direct correlation between spiralling growth in
the prison population and a fall in crime. Crime fell throughout most of the western world in the
1990s. Crime fell in countries that had, and still have, far lower rates of imprisonment than ours
(The Rt. Hon. Kenneth Clarke MP, Justice Secretary, July 2010).
The riots at Moorland Young Offender Institution (YOI) in November 2010, and those in
Aylesbury and Brinsford YOIs in 2009 and 2008 (Carter, 2010), add weight to the
commitment of the UK Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, to reduce the number of children
in the sorts of custodial institutions once described by his predecessors as ‘ ‘colleges of
crime’’. Above all, nobody should be surprised that all is not well at the ‘ ‘custody’’ end of the
youth justice system (YJS).
Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the first Children’s Commissioner (England), recently
described the conditions of an unkempt, poorly maintained, adult prison-like YOI, where
education was occasional, food unacceptable and boys slept (and ate) in unventilated cells
with their heads just 3 feet from open, filthy, lavatory bowls. In evidence submitted to the
Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in 2010, he contrasted these conditions with the very different
ethos, which he saw during his visits to secure children’s homes (SCHs) and a secure
training centre (STC) where:
[. . .] care standards were excellent, staff ate with young people in a tranquil environment with
good quality, nutritious food appropriateto a healthy young appetite, and serious education was
relentlessly promoted (CSJ, 2010, p. X).
DOI 10.1108/17466661111149411 VOL. 6 NO. 2 2011, pp. 115-124, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES
j
PAGE 115
John Pitts, University of
Bedfordshire, London, UK.
Malcolm Stevens,
International Juvenile
Justice Observatory,
Northampton, UK and
Diagrama Foundation,
Murcia, Spain.
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