YOUNG PEOPLE IN JAIL

Some people say that jail is the right place to send our young offenders but for me, it’s like saying that the kennels are the right place for your dog. I think we would all agree, (well the humane anyway) that every dog lover would fight tooth and nail for their dog not to go there, especially if that owner knew whilst there, the dog would be bullied, robbed and in some cases totally neglected. So why do we do it to our children?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not so naïve as to think that every young offender has the stability of a loving, caring family unit who naturally wants what’s best for them. This is the real world, and it’s my opinion and personal experience, that the majority of young people who offend come from unsavoury backgrounds ranging from physical abuse to utter neglect but why do children, and that’s who we’re talking about, children, why do they have to go to jail to be heard, to get regular meals, a bed to sleep in and people who’ll listen to them? What’s more to the point, where is the help before they seriously offend?

In my experience there is always escalation in these sorts of problems. Young people rarely get sent to jail for first, second or even third offences so why is there not real intense help, support and guidance to nip things in the bud rather than shut the door after the horse has bolted. I know from personal experience that at the very least, prison breeds contempt. Surely this is shown with reoffending being at a rate of 80 per cent nationally. I mean I’ll put my hands up and thank God for the two out of ten that manage to turn over a new leaf but at a rate of eight out of ten reoffending, let us hear about the eight who have been unable to do this. The eight unheard voices that even at this early stage have been labelled as a statistic. I have been one of that eight and have seen first hand the bullying, taxing and violence that occurs daily in a young offenders institution and in my opinion society is playing blind to a no win situation. Young offenders either get released totally full of themselves and think they own the world, or totally broken by bullying mentally as well as physically. They have so much suppressed resentment and anger all they want is someone to blame, and that’s normally who they see put them there in the first place, society. So the vicious circle begins and after a while it just becomes a way of life for so many of our children. Sir David Ramsbotham (the former inspector of prisons), said that what he saw of children in prison was, "wholly unacceptable, the bullying, racism, degradation, isolation and fear, that are all too often their daily fare, (and too often ignored and condoned while child inmates are voiceless and powerless), such abuse can only damage children and increase the chances that they will go out and harm more victims". Which brings me to what I feel it all comes down to, MONEY. It has been said that in an ideal world, that young people running loose should be taken out of circulation and sent to local authority secure units, where the children’s act must be observed and child development and therapeutic approaches built in to a regime where the child can only benefit. Keeping a child in these conditions costs £3000 a week compared to£3840 a month for a child in a juvenile prison. I am aware there are not enough secure places but surely this would be money well spent. They know it works so why not invest money in society’s future instead of it’s downfall. Surely the money the government thinks it’s saving gets lost in the damage, compensation, legal aid costs, property loss, etc, etc and that’s without going into the emotional damage caused to the many victims left in the wake of the young offender. Over 10 thousand young people get sent to jail each year, over 8 thousand of these will re-offend, WHY?

I haven’t the answers or a magic wand but it seems society is on a hiding to nothing if it thinks locking children away for a spell, and then in most cases sending them back to the place where I believe most of the trouble stems from, the home, will make a difference, I’m afraid they’re wrong. Nothing will change, things will stay the same. You lock a dog up for long enough and leave it, it’ll become wild, so why does society expect anything different from our children when they treat them in the same way?