Blunkett: Targetting young offenders

The government has launched a new crime crackdown that will see some young offenders electronically tagged and monitored in an attempt to tackle their offending.

The new Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme is viewed as a way of reducing the number of persistent young offenders out of prison by providing the courts with an alternative means of punishment.

Speaking at the launch of the programme in Newham, London, home secretary David Blunkett said the new option would provide "a powerful tool to curb the criminal activities of persistent young offenders who are estimated to commit a quarter of all youth crime."

The Newham scheme involves the use of a £600,000 a year system which can recognise faces using CCTV cameras.

The first ISSP was imposed by magistrates at Stratford Youth Court in east London on Monday. The offender, a persistent joyrider, was fitted with an electronic tag.

The programme is being funded by the Home Office and managed by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. It is to be extended to 41 areas throughout the country at a cost of £45 million.

Offenders who are sentenced to an ISSP could be placed under surveillance 24 hours a day. Monitoring options will include the use of electronic tagging and voice verification in addition to tracking and supervision being carried out by dedicated police officers and Youth Offending Team members.

ISSP packages are to be tailored to each offender in a bid to tackle their behaviour. Punishments will range from community work to taking part in literacy and numeracy programmes. It thought the programme could be used on 2500 offenders a year.

A pilot of the new programme in Rotherham involving 27 young offenders who had committed 160 offences in nine months between them found that the number of offences fell to 47 while they were on the scheme. None re-offended with a more serious crime, five re-offended with a crime of equal seriousness and others did not re-offend at all during the pilot.

Blunkett said that "intensive supervision will ensure that persistent young offenders are not just punished, but also made to take responsibility for their actions."

Norman Warner, chairman of the Youth Justice Board, said the new policy would offer more effective ways of ending serial offending.

"For the first time courts have the option of a longer, tightly monitored, highly structured comprehensive alternative to custodial sentences. Short custodial sentences are not effective in changing behaviour and preventing further offending," he said.