Speaking at the meeting hosted by Barnardo's this week, David Laws, children's spokesman for the Liberal Democrats criticised the numbers of young people held in the secure estate and said the rehabilitation of young offenders must be a priority and a move towards more early intervention will help bring numbers down.
He said: "We have been incredibly successful in the past 30 to 40 years in locking up young people. Prisons are places that allow and encourage people to go on and make the same mistakes.
"When young people need to be in prison there has to be a chance of rehabilitation, education, training, a link to the outside world."
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