The government made a pledge in 1996 to halve the time it takes to deal with persistent young offenders in England and Wales from 142 days in 1996 to 71 days by 2002. It has hit this target in every year since 2002, except 2006. The latest figures, for February 2008, show the average time was 62 days, compared with 70 days at the same time last year. In the period from...