2nd December 2010
A report issued today by the Prince's Trust entitled "The cost of exclusion: cutting the cost of youth disadvantage in the UK" has found that the price of crime committed by those aged 21 years or under in Great Britain has risen to a staggering £1.2 billion a year, equating to over £23 million a week. This increase, of approximately 20% over the last few years has occurred despite declining numbers of convictions of young people over the same period.
The figure of £1.2 billion is calculated by using the average cost associated with each crime (security expenditure, property stolen, response to the crime etc) and the expenditure on court and custodial sanctions. Although admittedly the former cost is estimated and prone to criticism and debate the latter is fixed and accounts for almost £600 million of the total.
The UK, consistent with Ireland, has a very high number of children and youths incarcerated in exceptionally expensive secure children’s home/training centres, young offender institutions and in costly prisons, especially when compared to other European nations. Nearly 3% of the incarcerated population is less than 18 and over 10% are between 18 and 21 (again these figures are almost identical to those within the Irish penal system).
Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this huge expense is the extraordinary wastefulness of it, something that has become even more apparent now in these frugal conditions and budget cutting times. When success is viewed upon in terms of preventing future offending, the old saying about a fool and his money seems almost apt here. The reoffending rate for children and young people who are released from a custodial institution currently stands at approximately 75% within Great Britain.
This does not mean that three quarters of that expenditure is wasted, certainly many of those who go on to re-offend have benefited in some form from being incarcerated, be it training courses, drug services etc. It would also most certainly be remiss not to state that custody provides other valuable functions in the eyes of some providing punishment and affording communities a period of respite from youthful offenders. However, rehabilitation must be a primary aim of any justice system (admittedly there are those who would state otherwise) and therefore along with it the reduction of recidivism. The figure of 75% indicates that this goal within the custodial youth justice system in Great Britain is not being met.
The report gives some detail as to how better meet such through using the money in a more productive manner, tackling employment prospects and education etc. The IPRT has similarly written extensively about dealing with young offenders by tackling their background of severe deprivation and social disadvantage in their campaign Shifting Focus: from criminal justice to social justice.
This report should highlight in bold the need to seek out alternative ways of dealing with youth re-offending and youth crime in general. It should put in real terms the extraordinary waste the government continually makes and force them to acknowledge this. if the UK government is as committed to reducing recidivsim as Ken Clarke maintains it is then policy for youths must be re-evaluated, and likewise must be done within our own state.
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Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.