Youth custody system ‘setting children up to fail’
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, February 24, 2022
The youth custody system is “setting children up to fail”, according to a report based on the experiences of young people.
The first report from the Young Advocates Project, which has been co-produced by children and young people aged 14 to 20 with first-hand experience of the youth justice system, finds that racism and abuse in jails are major issues while the youth secure estate “does not consistently treat children as children or reflect the ‘child first’ principle”.
Education for children in custody needs to be improved and an independent complaints system must be set up to improve outcomes for young people in youth custody, the report states.
A series of recommendations from young people as part of the report include calls for harsher consequences for staff that harm children in custody and the prioritisation of staff training on de-escalation and rehabilitation over restraint and punishment.
One young person said: “You’re not going to fix problems by sending people to jail - there are no options - you’re setting them up to fail.”
Tackling racism within the police, court system and youth custody estate is also key to increasing life chances for young people at risk of becoming involved in crime, the report adds.
“The children and young people we spoke to mostly connected stereotyping with their negative treatment and experiences with the police, particularly young black males experiencing increased stop and searches, being labelled as a gang member or gang-associated or receiving harsher sentences,” it states.
Policing is seen by young people as overwhelmingly racist, untrustworthy and inconsistent, according to the report, which adds that while “stereotyping was associated mostly with policing, it is seen across all systems and about many characteristics”.
Some young people also said they associated courts with injustice.
One said: “Everyone does not get the same sentence. Certain races get it worse because of your colour. They say you’re innocent until proven guilty but they treat me like I’m guilty from the start.”
The young advocates are calling for improved diversity and representation in all services working with vulnerable young people and for court processes to become more child-friendly.
The use of school exclusions should be reduced with “a target to eliminate them completely” in a bid to reduce the numbers of young people becoming involved in crime, the report adds.
One young person who was excluded from school before ending up in prison said: “If I didn’t go to the pupil referral unit (PRU) I would not be in prison, I would still be playing football. I stopped playing football when I went to the PRU and I lost my old friends from mainstream school and made new ones that were negative influences. You have to fit in with them and put on a front.”
Improved teacher training around warning signs of children becoming involved in criminal activity, the addition of work skills to the curriculum and the creation of a national body to support children more frequently in trouble at school are also among recommendations put forward in the report.
The Youth Advocates Projects is run in partnership between the Alliance for Youth Justice and Leaders Unlocked.
