Opinion: Are support orders always the answer?

For the past six months or so, commentators have drawn attention to the fact that only about a dozen ISOs have been issued as a means to prevent reoccurrences of behaviour that has led to ASBOs. The figures quoted have risen in recent weeks, to some 30 or 40, but they are still, when taken in isolation and out of context, abysmally and embarrassingly low.

But let me try to broaden the scene. When the antisocial behaviour agenda was launched in 2003, the Youth Justice Board argued that there should be some dedicated individual support provision for young people subjected to what were community-focused prohibitive measures (ASBOs). Hence ISOs. But of course there were no dedicated resources for such provision to be put immediately into effect. Moreover, a significant majority of young people subjected to ASBOs are already known to their local youth offending teams and engaged in some of the positive interventions organised by these teams. Therefore, they have no particular need for dedicated ISOs.