Youth Justice in England & Wales

....Reviewing the Radical Overhaul of the System

Two reviews of changes in the youth justice system in England & Wales have recently been published: The Audit Commision report Youth Justice 2004: A review of the reformed youth justice system; and the National Audit Office (NAO) report Youth Offending: the delivery of community and custodial sentences. The ’radical overhaul’ of the youth justice system stemmed from the new Crime and Disorder Act of 1998, and included the establishment of the Youth Justice Board, Youth Offending Teams and new sentencing options.

The Audit Commission’s report on youth justice takes stock of these major changes, and since the publication of its 1996 report Misspent Youth. The report assesses the impact of the reforms, and examines the effectiveness of the system in preventing offending and re-offending by young people.

Some of the report’s main findings include:

• Young offenders are now more likely to receive an intervention than in the past.
• Magistrates are very satisfied with the service they receive from youth offending teams
• Young offenders are more likely to make amends for their wrong-doing.
• The Youth Justice Board sets a clear national framework with minimum standards, and a performance framework, and takes a lead role in monitoring progress and developing policy.
  

Some of the areas identified where more could be done:

• Although crime overall has fallen (and youth crime has not increased), the public know little about the new reforms and their confidence in the youth justice system is low.
• While some young offenders are benefiting from early pre-court interventions, too many minor offences are still taking up valuable court time.
• Although young offenders on bail are less likely to offend (and are therefore less of a risk to the community), large numbers are still being remanded in custody, especially black and mixed race young people.
• Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programmes (ISSPs) are a more constructive and considerably cheaper option for persistent young offenders than a spell in custody, but they cannot be expected to reduce custody on their own.
• In contrast to the continuing rise in the adult prison population, the youth custodial population has remained stable, but black and minority ethnic young offenders are much more likely to begiven custodial sentences than white young offenders.
• Preventing offending in the first place - while there had been a substantial increase in investment in early intervention in the past 5 years, it is estimated that early intervention with even 1 in 10 of all those in youth custody could have saved up to £100 million a year. They recommend good national and local coordination of targeted early intervention programmes, but even more, that mainstream agencies such as schools and health services take on full responsibility for prevention of youth offending (www.audit-commission.gouv.uk).

A copy of the full report can be downloaded here. 

The NAO Report

The NAO report: Youth Offending: the delivery of community and custodial sentences, published January 21, 2004, highlights the success of the Youth Justice Board in developing and introducing a range of new non-custodial sentences and programmes for young offenders since 1998. The Youth Justice Board was set up under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to monitor the performance and operation of the entire youth justice system.

In particular, the report calls on schools to become more involved in preventing youth offending and antisocial behaviour. It recommends that head teachers work with youth offending teams (Yots) to devise strategies to reduce youth crime.

A copy of the full report can be downloaded here.