Justice: Sentencing of Young Offenders Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Sherlock
Main Page: Baroness Sherlock (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Sherlock's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(12 years, 7 months ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, is the Minister aware that about a half of those convicted for riot-related offences, certainly at the time the Riots Communities and Victims Panel published its report, were 18 to 24 year-olds? If he does not feel that he can give additional resources at the moment to enable the Youth Justice Board to take over, how else can he address the problems of that age group? After all, if we have another set of riots, that may be money well spent.
What I can say is that there is a White Paper in the offing on these areas. It does not take a great deal of homework to identify that age group as perhaps the next best group on which to focus the intensity of care that has been shown in the youth justice system. If we could get anywhere near that success in the 18 to 25 group, we would have a real chance of cutting reoffending, which is the real problem in our prison population and in general levels of crime.