Number of children locked up 'rises fivefold'
The number of children locked up by the courts in England and Wales has increased fivefold in a decade, the charity Barnardo's said today.
Barnardo's said the use of custody for 10 to 14-year-olds rose by 550% from 1996 to 2006 and had led to children "being written off" by the age of 12.
The charity's chief executive, Martin Narey, a former director general of the Prison Service, said detaining so many youngsters was "inexplicable" and "unjustifiable".
Barnardo's said it recognised that custodial terms were needed for "grave" or "serious" crimes but added only 7% of sentences for 10-14-year-olds last year were for such offences.
More than £27 million could be saved per year if custodial terms were only reserved for the most serious offences, the charity claimed.
According to the charity, the cost of custody could be as much as £185,780 to accommodate a young person for one year - the equivalent of six years' schooling at Eton College.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
4 comments:
jailhouselawyer,
Absence of proper parenting, respect of self and others.
John,
It's good of Barnados to monitor crime statistics. Your experiences in their 'care' were clearly appalling.
anonymous:
possibly not lack of proper parenting, just that the law in this country now forbids the parents to chastise their offspring by handling them physically. It must be aknowledged though that there is a huge number of Chav parents who let their little shites rake the streets at all hours but then again there are perfectly good parents who feel so frustrated because their kids turn around, give them a mouthful of lip and stand defiant in front of them because they know that if their parents scrag them they can go to the police and cry "human rights". I have been on the sharp end of this. Chastise yer kid and get put away.
Focken' Maggie Thatch (who started all this shite) needs locking up.
AND THE SCHOOLS TEACH THEM HOW TO DO THIS IN "CITIZENSHIP" LESSONS!
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