Putting disorderly youth behind bars, depriving them of their potential to contribute, to compensate and to progress, should be an absolute last resort and done only in the interests of community safety. Yet a reality TV show on Channel 5 a few months back attempted to illustrate that a short spell in prison was exactly the medicine required.
The idea behind Banged Up was that a dozen or so known troublemakers, most with antisocial behaviour orders, records of petty crime and addiction problems, would spend a week in an old prison, living exactly as they would if they were real inmates. It was hoped that when shown how terrible such an existence is, they'd be deterred from getting into further trouble.
Unfortunately, while the experience did frighten some of them, it did little to raise their self-esteem or much to address the problems of those with alcohol and substance dependency, whose history of theft and violence seemed a direct result of those problems.
At one point, former Home Secretary David Blunkett addressed the motley crew in person, telling them that if the ordeal helped just one of them, it would have been worth it. Help just one? Hardly the greatest of aspirations for the man at the heart of Tony Blair's 'education, education, education' promises. While admittedly a fascinating experiment on some kind of voyeuristic, morbid level, watching Banged Up left one overwhelming conclusion - that surely there must be better ways of helping troubled young men than merely showing them that things could get even worse? The only thing that did help was when the young men were given peer mentors, people they could relate to and respect. Youth work, anyone? Surely government money should be invested in helping young people in the places that they are, not banging them up or threatening to bang them up. Talk about locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.
- Steve Beebee is a freelance writer and former staff writer at The National Youth Agency.
