'Keep teens out of adult courts'

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Keeping under 18-year-olds out of the adult court system will reduce youth crime and save public cash, an independent panel has said.

The panel, chaired by the former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway, also called for mandatory reports completed on the views and wishes of every child who appears before a hearing.

Formed by Action for Children Scotland, the panel was drawn up to consider how to reform the Children's Hearing system in Scotland.

Its proposals follow the publication of the Scottish government's Children's Hearings Bill last week which included the creation of a new national body to be responsible for setting standards for the recruitment, support and training of local panel members, and for monitoring their implementation.

The panel moves that the hearings system should be adapted to include 16 and 17 year olds believing that this system would "break the cycle" of offending due to its social welfare approach, rather than confirm their criminal behaviour.

According to Action for Children Scotland, four out of five young people who are imprisoned before the age of 18 go on to re-offend.

Holloway said: "We believe there is an unanswerable case for extending the use of the hearings to all those under 18. Use of adult courts for immature and usually poorly supported and poorly educated young people has serious consequences for them and is doing nothing to reduce offending or cut the steadily growing prison population.

"It is also hugely expensive – it costs around £48,000 a year to keep someone in a young offenders' institution when there are more effective and much cheaper alternatives that work intensively with young people to reduce offending."

Action for Children runs a Youthbuild service which provides training and support to help disadvantaged young people, many of whom are former offenders, find work in the construction industry.

The panel questioned a range of experts on the future of the hearings system at a day-long session in November last year. The other panel members were journalist Ruth Wishart, historian Professor Tom Devine, Baroness Veronica Linklater and Simon Di Rollo, QC.