Speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing, youth justice minister Andrew Selous said the coalition is considering creating dedicated jails for prisoners aged 18 to 30 to ensure younger, often first-time, offenders do not mix with more hardened, older criminals.
As an initiative to cut stubbornly high reoffending rates, the plan might have merit, but it is tackling the problem too far down the line. Experts say – and research backs this up – that young people start along the road to offending long before they end up in prison. One of the biggest indicators of a child ending up in prison when they are older is having a parent (usually a father) who serves a prison term.
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