In brief
Youth custody should be abolished for all but the most persistent or violent offenders, the Local Government Association (LGA) says in a report, Children in Trouble. This would reduce the number of young people being locked up by over 4,000 (65%). The LGA is calling for resources to be diverted from the custody system to community-based initiatives and for the courts to use prison sentences as a last resort. The child prison population has risen by more than 50% since 1992. Cllr Les Lawrence, the LGA’s spokesperson on children and young people, says: “Thousands of young people are caught in a vicious circle that condemns them to a life of crime and does nothing to make our communities safer.”
