Justice without prejudice

In the past year, John Bache has sent one under-18 to custody while sitting as a youth court magistrate in South Cheshire. It is certainly not something he is proud of. In fact, he views the fact that the young man is now serving 12 months in a young offender institution for an offence involving “quite serious violence” as a failure for all agencies involved.

“There had been a previous record of violence,” Bache says, explaining the decision taken alongside two other magistrates on the bench that day.

“There’s only so often you can say ‘this is your last chance’. Eventually the last chance has got to come, but I don’t sentence to custody unless it is a last resort. I think sending a young person to custody is an indication that everybody has failed. It shouldn’t happen and I would like it never to happen.”

Speaking in the boardroom of the Magistrates’ Association headquarters in London’s smart Fitzroy Square, the retired doctor’s desire to try to help children in trouble is clear. He says it is his enthusiasm for working with them that drew him to involvement with youth custody in general and to his role as chair of the youth courts committee at the association.

“I like children, I don’t like adults,” he jokes. “I’m good at relating to children and can always make them laugh. I have always enjoyed working with young people and get on well with them.”

Reducing custody
His philosophy – he proclaims to be “liberal with a little ‘l’” – appears reflective of a system-wide shift in thinking on youth crime and punishment in recent years, manifested most visibly in the reducing use of custody. Custody levels have dropped by more than 45 per cent in the past four years with 1,643 under-18s in custody in August this year compared with 3,019 in August 2008. In spite of this apparent success, Bache wants to see still fewer young people imprisoned.

“We certainly need to send far fewer young people to custody,” he says. “The main aim of sentencing is to prevent the committing of further offences, and I fully agree with that. But I’m very much against the idea of punishment – the notion that if you commit an offence you should be punished. I think that goes against some of the principles of youth justice. A lot of young people can be dealt with in some way other than punishment. I don’t believe custody is successful in reducing crime.”

Bache says magistrates are making an important contribution to the decline in the use of custody through the sentencing decisions they make. But he admits that there is room for improvement in terms of the attitude of youth court magistrates towards the young people they preside over.

“Youth magistrates in particular have a tendency to put their own values on young people who have had very different backgrounds,” he says.

“A lot of young people in front of them haven’t had the luck they have had. It doesn’t excuse some of the things they have done but goes some way towards explaining it. You have got to get rid of your own prejudices and put yourself in their shoes. Some magistrates are better at doing that than others.”

Despite this, he feels that magistrates are better suited than judges to make decisions relating to children and young people. He says the two-tier court system, that sees the most serious cases elevated to crown court level to be handled by a judge, should be overhauled.

“All young people should be dealt with in the youth court, not the crown court,” he says. “For very serious offences we are suggesting a crown court judge should sit with either two or four youth court magistrates, but no jury.

“It’s a very radical proposal and would require a change in legislation. It would
mean young people being dealt with by people who understand them and are used to dealing with them.”

The Magistrates’ Association is also planning to ramp up efforts to tackle the fact that looked-after children are over-represented in the youth justice system.

“We are becoming really worried about looked-after children,” Bache says.

“They are brought before the courts for offences that wouldn’t go to the police if it was a conventional child. We’re also worried about the fact they are moved around so much. They are meant to be ‘looked-after’, but very often they are not looked-after well.”

Judicial oversight
In line with current government thinking, Bache says there is a need to increase public confidence in both community punishments and out-of-court disposals. He argues that some form of oversight must be established to monitor their effectiveness and whether they are being used appropriately.

“I think at the moment there is a bit of a postcode lottery according to the whims of the chief constable or basic command unit, and that’s wrong,” he says.

“There needs to be some sort of judicial oversight of out-of-court disposals – allowing magistrates to have access to police files and see if the Crown Prosecution Service or police decision to deal with it out of court is appropriate. The fear from the public is that young people are being dealt with too lenie