New Clause 2 - PENAL CUSTODY FOR CHILDREN
Police and Justice Bill
5:15 pm
Lynne Featherstone (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
This is a probing new clause. It is about trying to end penal custody for children, following the publication of the Carlile inquiry report. We believe that the Bill offers the perfect opportunity to improve the situation. Figures from the Children’s Rights Alliance for England show that about 83 per cent. of children who are locked up are held in state-run prisons, 9 per cent. are held in private prisons or secure training centres and the rest are in local authority secure children’s homes.
Children should only ever be detained in local authority secure children’s homes, where child care standards are upheld and social care professionals can intervene positively in the lives of children and their families. Secure children’s homes provide young people with support tailored to their individual needs. Currently, they are generally used to accommodate young offenders aged 12 to 14, girls up to the age of 16 and 15 to 16-year-old boys assessed as vulnerable.
In order to give children a chance of having a future and improving their lives, instead of learning new ways of being a criminal from more experienced criminals in the state prison system, we ought to stop sending them to places that do not address their needs and help them out of the criminal system. Children in penal custody are known to be among the most disadvantaged in our society. More than a quarter have the literacy and numeracy ability of an average seven-year-old, 85 per cent. show signs of a personality disorder, over half have been in care or involved with social services and most have been excluded from school.