UK ASBO 'overdrive' condemns children to custody

A FORMER top civil servant at the Home Office has attacked the Government’s use of child antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs). Martin Narey, who left the department to run the children’s charity Barnardo’s, said that too many youngsters were being locked up as a result of the controversial ASBOs. He suggested that the Government had gone back on its word to use the orders on under-18s only in “exceptional” cases.

The Home Office will publish new figures today on how many ASBOs have been handed out to children and adults since their introduction in April 1999. Mr Narey said: “When ASBOs were introduced the guidance was that they be used on children only in exceptional circumstances. There were only 61 in almost a two-year period to the end of 2000. By contrast there were more than 500 child ASBOs in 2003, more than a thousand in 2004 and we can expect the figures for 2005 to be much worse. This is not exceptional use.”

He added: “In some areas the use of ASBOs on children is becoming entirely routine. ASBOs have their place but their over-use is catapulting children into a custodial system that has so many children in it that the chances of rehabilitation are slim and the chances of deeper criminalisation likely. “We acknowledge that there is a small minority of children whose behaviour is entirely unacceptable. However, ASBOs are a very blunt tool and their use must be confined to the small number of children who really need them.”

Mr Narey called on the Home Office — where he was a permanent secretary until December — to publish fresh guidance on using child ASBOs. The circumstances of each youngster should also be assessed before being handed an order, he said. Mr Narey also called for moves to combat “geographical inconsistencies” in the use of child ASBOs. For example, in 2004 there were 192 in Greater Manchester but only 33 in Merseyside. Figures published in November showed that the number of ASBOs issued from April 1999 until March 2005 was 5,557 in England and Wales.

30 March 2006

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17129-2110628,00.html

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