23rd August 2016
Beyond Youth Custody have published Custody to Community: Supporting Young People to Cope with Release, a guide, based on best practice, for practitioners to help ease the transition process for young people from custody back into the community.
Beyond Youth Custody is a national programme based in the UK that campaigns for reform in policy and practice for the effective resettlement of young people. It recognises that the transition from custody to the community is particularly uncertain and disorientating for young people, identifying the negative effects associated with this process. The report includes first-hand accounts from young people discussing these effects, and explores how these effects may prove detrimental to the successful reintegration of young people into the community.
Successful reintegration is crucial to ensuring desistance. With that in mind, the guide provides recommendations to practitioners to ‘support their work and ease the transition process for young people.’
IPRT has highlighted in the past that due to the on-going development of the brain and maturity, young people have a lower capacity for self-regulation, meaning they are more likely to act impulsively and commit crimes. Conversely, young people are also more likely to respond to efforts to change their behaviour than adults who commit similar crimes. As such, the right intervention at the right time can make all the difference. IPRT welcomes this guide as a means of better ensuring young people are provided with all the support they need to successfully avoid reoffending in the future.
Find the guide here.
To learn more about IPRT’s research into young offenders, click here.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.