OPINION

Prison is no place for children

Of all the disturbing facts about Scotland's prison culture — rising population, overcrowding, suicide rate, continued reliance on slopping-out nine years after it was eradicated in England and Wales — there is one that receives scandalously little attention: the increasing number of children sent to jail.

In 2002, 33 children between the ages of 14 and 16, who had not been convicted of any crime, were sent to prison for anything between one week and a month while they waited for a place in local authority secure accommodation. As The Herald reports today, the justice minister, Cathy Jamieson, has now commissioned research into why the number has doubled since 1999 and whether new legislation is required to prevent it happening. At the risk of pre-empting the study's conclusions, the answer to the second part of the question must be yes. It is impossible to see how in any instance prison could be said to “work” for children.

Those who are not terrified by the experience, and thereby become a suicide risk, could see being sent to an adult jail as a badge of honour, or confirmation that society sees them as hopeless cases. They will certainly not receive the kind of help they badly need to stay out of trouble. It is to be hoped that Ms Jamieson's researchers report back before the anti-social behaviour bill becomes law.

A fair assumption as to why the number is increasing is that there is simply not enough local-authority secure accommodation to meet demand. Given the strong possibility that more children will end up on the wrong side of the law as a result of the anti-social behaviour measures, the pressure on local authority secure accommodation will increase, and as a result more children will find themselves in prison. Although it is to Ms Jamieson's credit that she is now trying to tackle the problem, it is typical of the approach taken by the executive to its anti-social behaviour bill that such difficulties should only be picked up at this late stage. Critics have long accused the executive of rushing ahead with the legislation and ignoring the serious structural problems of the current system of youth justice, such as the chronic shortage of social workers. To that growing list of problems can now be added the lack of secure council accommodation. The answer to this lies not in building more accommodation, but preventing children reaching such places in the first place. Young offender institutions should only be a last resort for those whose behaviour poses a serious risk to society.

Putting children in prison, as the minister must realise, goes well beyond the pale for a civilised society. One way or another it must stop.

16 March 2004
 

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