Member News
Lord Ramsbotham writes for ePolitix.com ahead of his oral question on the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour
During the 13 years of New Labour administration, numerous commissions, inquiries and reports were conducted into different aspects of the Criminal Justice System (CJS). All were conducted by motivated people, many of them experts in their own field, but far too may of them ended up in what, to all extents and purposes, amounted to a waste paper basket in one or other ministry.
Recently those of us who take an interest in the CJS were uplifted by a speech made by Ken Clarke, in which he signalled what appears to be a complete reversal of the New Labour approach. The voluntary sector, instead of being owned, is to be regarded and used as a partner. Re-offending rates are to be used to judge success or failure, instead of the amount of money spent and the number of performance boxes ticked. There is, of course, much more.
Into this new aura of optimism, a new report, organised by the Police Foundation and paid for by the Nuffield Foundation, is to be launched, which will serve as an admirable test of whether our hopes are to be realised. It sets out a number of practical recommendations that are entirely in line with what I understand Ken Clarke to want to achieve. It concerns the future of the group of people with whom, above all, society must engage, both to exploit their undoubted talents and prevent them from embarking on the pathway to crime – the young. It sets out three principles for better protecting the public against youth crime and anti-social behaviour:
• Tackling anti-social behaviour, crime and re-offending through the underlying circumstances and needs in youngsters’ lives.
• Ensuring that those responsible for such behaviour face meaningful consequences that hold them accountable for the harm caused to victims and the community.
• Seeking to retain offenders within mainstream society or reconnect them in ways that enable them to lead law-abiding lives.
Not much new in that, but there is much that is innovative in the report, hence my question of ministers on July 19, asking them whether they intend to make use of all the helpful, expert advice and recommendation with which they have been presented, or to follow the old course of looking such gift horses in the mouth. In other words, as a supporter of Ken Clarke’s intent, I am testing the validity of my optimism.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.