Written evidence to be reported to the House

Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:30 pm on 16 October 2007.

Alert me about debates like this

Cindy Barnett: Violence. A robbery case, for instance. There are gradations of robbery. It is possible for that not to result in a custodial sentence in the youth court, although very commonly it does.

If a case merits near-custody, it is extremely serious but we strain every nerve in the youth court not to send young people in to custody unless it is inevitable. If it is a first-timer who has pleaded guilty, our option is a referral order and that simply seems far too far down the scale. Even with promises of it being beefed up and made much more serious, we are still handing the case over to another group of people. That is what our court order entails: we make a referral order and it is sent off for a contract to be drawn up and reparations and things like that. We do not think that the referral order covers it, and we think that if there was more flexibility at the top end, so that there could be a serious high-end community sentence, it would reduce custody figures in the youth court.