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 could not agree more with the hon. Gentleman. Clearly, we should be thinking about what can be done in advance, because prevention is preferable to cure. However, the cure would be blighted were the children to be put in prisons where it is likely that they would not get the help that they needed.
Penal custody does not address the problems of severely disadvantaged children, but local authority secure children’s homes do. Some 82 per cent. of children who leave young offender institutions reoffend after incarceration. The Minister and I have previously discussed our keenness to change behaviour and to give people pathways out of criminality. I hope that she will answer positively, albeit this is a probing new clause.