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Stop investing in crime and start investing in smart justice
SmartJustice for Young People launches tonight at Sadler’s Wells in London by demanding an end to the warehousing of record numbers of children and young people in prisons that just churn out better criminals. Following a survey of almost 1,000 crime victims, SmartJustice for Young People calls for more support to improve parenting, more constructive activities for young people and more compulsory work schemes in the community where young offenders make amends for the damage they’ve caused.
The launch has been created, and will be performed, in collaboration with young offenders and those at risk of offending. Using dance, drama, film and visual art, young people have worked with creative professionals to communicate their experiences of what led them to commit crime and what works to stop it.
Guests attending include Monty Don, gardening writer, television presenter and founder of the Monty Project for prolific offenders, Turner Prize winners Grayson Perry and Gillian Wearing, Kidulthood star Femi Oyeniran, ex-Cabinet Minister Clare Short MP and the Prisons Minister Gerry Sutcliffe MP.
Speaking ahead of his presentation at the launch of SmartJustice for Young People, Monty Don said:
“The offenders we work with on the Monty Project, 90% of whom are problem drug users, are not committing crime, not using drugs, and are learning new skills. A cost analysis of projects like this would overwhelmingly show that this is a cheap and successful thing to do. “ hear the full podcast here
Speaking today Lucie Russell, Director of SmartJustice, said:
“Everyone knows our prison system is bursting at the seams. Young offender institutes are just universities of crime. Locking up more and more young people is a recipe for disaster. Instead of wasting money on overspill prison cells in police stations, the Home Secretary must act to support parents of teenagers in trouble, develop effective community penalties and divert mentally ill youngsters and addicts into the treatment they badly need. SmartJustice for Young People means more responsibility, less crime and fewer victims”.
SmartJustice promotes non-custodial schemes that are effective e.g.
Newham Council, London - one year after free sports facilities were introduced,
putting every youngster within a 10 minute walk of an activity area, first
time appearances at Stratford Youth Court went down by 25%. This compared
to a 1% reduction in other parts of London.
Bedford Prolific Offenders Scheme - cut the reoffending rate by those
taking part by 58%, bringing about an overall drop of 6% in the local
crime rate
Oxfordshire Restorative Justice Scheme -monitored 56 young offenders on
the scheme and found them half as likely to be convicted or cautioned
for further offences in the following 12 months.
Leicester Junior Youth Inclusion Programme - has seen a third of the
young people it works with not be in trouble again
Rainer Rapid Action Project - in its first year only 1% of the young people
it worked with reoffended.
SmartJustice for Young People in the North East launches at the SAGE Centre in Gateshead this Friday 20th October where the main speaker will be the Rt. Hon. Hilary Armstrong MP.
For more information and interviews with the young people involved and guests attending please call:
Lucie Russell 020 7689 7734 or 07931 507873
Sinead Hanks 020 7689 7734 or 07931 380952
Notes to Editors
1. SmartJustice is a five year campaign which promotes community based solutions to crime. It is based at the Prison Reform Trust and supported by the Network for Social Change, the group behind the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt Campaign, and the Big Lottery Fund
2. SmartJustice for Young People is calling for more constructive activities for young people, more support to improve parenting, more mental health and drug treatment in the community and more punishments in which young offenders do compulsory work to pay back the community for their crimes.
3. SmartJustice recently ran a poll of 972 victims of crime carried out in conjunction with Victim Support. The most striking findings of the survey, conducted by ICM, was that two thirds of victims believed prison didn’t work in reducing re-offending and that over three quarters of victims think that more constructive activities for young people in the community, better supervision by parents and more drug, alcohol and mental health treatment programmes would be far more effective.
4. Facts about young people and crime:
· On 13 October there were over 11,709 young people in prison
under the age of 21. Of these 2,764 were under 18 year olds
78% of 18 to 20 year olds and 82% of under 18’s are reconvicted
within two years of leaving prison.
· The number of 15 to 17 year olds in prison has doubled in the last 10 years and the number of sentenced young women imprisoned has almost trebled.
· Young people are much more likely to end up with a prison sentence than they were 10 years ago
· Almost half the children in prison have been convicted of non-violent offences - more children are in prison for robbery than any other offence
· Over eight out of ten boys under 18 who were released from prison were reconvicted within two years.
· Over half of under 18s have been in care and three in four of those held in young offenders' institutions have not attended school beyond the age of 13.
· Over half of 16-20 year olds who are locked up say they were dependent on drugs or alcohol in the year prior to imprisonment.
· One in three girls locked up has been subjected to sexual abuse, and one in four has experienced violence at home.