YES - Frances Crook, director, Howard League for Penal Reform
Asbos have been mostly issued to children, the mentally ill and the addicted, elevating what were previously understood as petty problems into socially significant ones.
Instead of seeing nuisance or offending behaviour as an occasion to energise various welfare agencies to address what is causing the offending behaviour, our system is engineered towards punishment. People in breach of an Asbo find themselves before a court having never committed a criminal act.
We must do more to divert children from the criminal justice system, not find new ways of getting them in younger and more frequently.
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