Think tank seeks urgent youth crime prevention review
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
An urgent review of crime prevention and education programmes for young people should take place with a view to immediately developing interventions in schools and for vulnerable young people, a report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has said.
The call is contained in plans for a radical overhaul of Britain’s criminal justice system in a green paper on criminal justice and addiction.
The think tank, founded by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, also highlights connections between negative family experiences and offending, citing research showing that boys with a parent in prison are more likely to offend.
"Studies have found that the increase in emotional strain on children with a parent in prison means that their risk of developing mental health problems and engaging in antisocial behaviour is three times higher than that of their peers," the paper states.
The report also calls for root and branch reform of the addiction treatment system, highlighting apparent failures in areas such as policing, prisons, drug and alcohol addiction and courts and sentencing.
Recommendations include scrapping the National Treatment Agency for drug addicts and replacing it with an Addiction Recovery Board charged with getting addicts off drugs and alcohol through, for instance, greater use of pioneering recovery communities.
A zero-tolerance approach by the police to antisocial behaviour with every officer given the freedom to exercise discretion and intervene immediately is also called for.
It also proposes abolishing the National Offender Management System (NOMS) and replacing it with local trusts working closely with communities and elected police commissioners.
Gavin Poole, the new executive director of the CSJ, added: "This paper presents an achievable vision that places full recovery at the heart of the drug and alcohol treatment system, and rehabilitation at the heart of the criminal justice system."
