In this piece, St Giles CEO Tracey Burley responds to a recently published report from The Co-op Foundation on public attitudes towards imprisonment of children.
While the number of children in custody across the UK has fallen sharply over the past decade, new research suggests the public is for a far more ambitious rethink of how we respond to youth offending.
The Co-op Foundation surveyed over 3,000 UK adults on their attitudes towards imprisonment of children. The results reveal a striking level of consensus: people want a youth justice system that works and prioritises rehabilitation.
Our experience at St Giles underlines the validity of this approach. Each day, our teams pick up the pieces of a system which imprisons children and releases them to a situation where education, life-chances and family support have been upended.
The public also sees this damage and takes a compassionate view of childhood offending – one based on circumstance rather than fixed character and informed decision-making. That perspective is rooted in evidence. Science shows us that brain development continues into the mid-twenties, particularly in areas governing impulse control and decision-making.
This is why early interventions and prevention are so critical. Many children lack protective factors around family stability and material comforts. Our trusted adult mentors support children at risk of violence, offending and exploitation, providing non-judgemental support to help keep children safe, positively engaged and steered clear from the justice system.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this is a system which places age of criminal responsibility at 10 – one of the lowest in the Western world. Only 15% of the public believe this is appropriate. Nearly two-thirds think it should be higher, with one in five arguing it should be at least 16.
The same pattern of enlightened public thinking emerges when we look at how children are treated within the system. 70% want greater use of community sentences for children who commit crimes. This includes a clear majority of victims of crime. Far from demanding harsher penalties, most people favour approaches that address the root causes of offending and support children to change course.
There is also public concern around the use of remand. A majority (52%) believe this practice is wrong, with only 18% supporting it. Nearly half of children in custody are awaiting trial, and of these, two-thirds will ultimately be acquitted or receive a non-custodial sentence. In other words, many children are being deprived of their liberty unnecessarily, running counter to the principles set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that detention should be a last resort. The UK Government has itself acknowledged that current practice falls short of this standard and has committed to reducing the number of children held on remand. This is an important step but one that must now translate into sustained change.
These attitudes are also grounded in pragmatism. The current system is expensive and often ineffective. Holding a child in a Young Offender Institution costs over £120,000 per year. By contrast, community-based supervision costs a fraction of that at around £7,000. Yet the outcomes are markedly better: reoffending rates are roughly 60% for those leaving custody, compared to around 30% for those supported in the community.
This raises an uncomfortable question: if the public prefers rehabilitation and evidence shows it works better and is more cost-effective, why is policy still leaning towards custody?
If we continue to invest in approaches that are costly and ineffective, we risk failing children and communities.
The public understands this and things are moving in the right direction. But there is more work to be done to address root causes, prevent needless imprisonment and reduce future victims.
Tracey Burley, Chief Executive Officer
Further reading:
https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/a-decade-to-deliver-responding-to-the-uks-knife-crime-plan/
https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/st-giles-welcomes-government-progress-on-tackling-county-lines/
https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/what-we-do/justice/young-adults/