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Prison is failing our children
Society has disintegrated so much that vulnerable young people have become victims… the Reverend Malcolm Hunter asks why
MANY people in Camden live in fear of being the possible victim of crime.
My family have lived in fear and still do. It was in June 2007 that my son was the victim of an unprovoked attack.
This resulted in him receiving a slash to his face which left him badly scarred as it needed 38 stitches, a stab wound to his shoulder and a slash wound to his chest. The injuries to him go far deeper than this, with the constant reminder as he looks in the mirror daily at the ugly scar. The constant reminder, as people look at his face and think, incorrectly, “thug”. The effect on his confidence and his brave decision to go to court are all costly.
As a family we have faced some severe witness intimidation over the past 15 months, with the police trying to persuade us to move for our own protection. Just four weeks ago we were the victims of theft thought to be linked to this case.
The young person, now just 18, who perpetrated this crime, received a five-year custodial sentence together with a life tariff. The witness intimidation will not cease… it will always be there.
The Prison Service has two key objectives:
• to protect the public by holding those convicted by the courts in a safe, decent and healthy environment;
• to reduce crime by providing constructive regimes which address offending behaviour, improve educational and work skills, and promote law-abiding behaviour in custody and after release.
Some of us may feel those who commit crime should be locked up and the keys thrown away; some of us may hope prison will reform the offender; while some of us may not be interested until crime visits us.
I believe prison is the last place some should be placed. There is not time in these few words to explore areas like women and the mentally ill. The example I have used above is of a then 17-year-old who has committed a crime on my son.
Children and young people in prison have a range of difficult problems. Despite the bravado they sometimes display they are not, as the media would lead us to believe, “bad kids” who have simply chosen in a cold and rational way to “cock a snook at society”. They are often vulnerable youngsters, caught in a confusing and unsettling time, stuck between childhood and adulthood, often with a plethora of difficulties.
Studies have found numerous common background factors which play a part in the lives of children who offend.
These include:
• physical, sexual and emotional abuse;
• loss of a significant person such as a parent or a grandparent;
• unstable living conditions;
• drug and alcohol abuse;
• inadequate parenting;
• lack of training and employment;
• peer-group pressure;
• aggressive and hyperactive behaviour in early childhood.
Studies show that a staggering number have been in local authority care. The Howard League’s reports, Lost Inside, Troubleshooter Report, and Sentenced to Fail have found that between 30 and 50 per cent have been in local authority care. A Chief Inspector of Prison’s study found that 40 per cent of juveniles in prison had such a history.
There is also an increasing awareness that many young people in prison are suffering mental illness. Over 50 per cent of remanded and over 30 per cent of sentenced young males have a diagnosable mental disorder.
Exclusion, truancy and poor educational achievement are startlingly common factors. In a study undertaken by the Howard League, 73 per cent of the group interviewed had been out of school at the date they were sentenced to custody. Many had difficulty reading, with 24 per cent reporting they had been diagnosed as being dyslexic or having other learning difficulties. This coincides with statistics from the Basic Skills Agency which found that between 60 and 70 per cent of the prison population have literacy and numeracy levels so low that they are ineligible for 96 per cent of jobs.
Problems with drugs and alcohol are also common among young people in prisons. In a Chief Inspector’s study almost two-thirds of those interviewed admitted to misusing drugs at some time in their lives. Almost a quarter had been under the influence of alcohol at the time of their offence. Up to a quarter claimed a current or past drink problem.
So what is it that these children in prison want? While, on the surface, children in prison appear antagonistic to society, underneath there is often a desire to be part of the community. However, they often have no concept of how to achieve this, particularly if they come from a family which is largely excluded from mainstream society. These children seek to bring stability to their lives, such as finding a job along with
re-entering the education system and finding a home of their own. I wonder if their dreams vary that much to yours and mine?
I believe children emerge from prison more damaged, with more problems than before serving their sentence, making long-term rehabilitation more difficult.
But what is at the core of my argument is that we should stop blaming these children and start addressing the key issue: why has society disintegrated so much now that these children become the victims? Until society wakes up and grasps how it is breaking down, with little values of love and caring for all individuals, crime will continue to grow at an extraordinary rate.
How would you or I feel if, as a young child, we had been sexually abused by an “uncle”, physically beaten up by yet another “uncle”, not sure who our sisters and brothers were, living a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving from one home or one school to another, with no parental support to encourage us to read or write and take school seriously, no good role model… Maybe I, too, would have given up and been excluded from school knowing I was a fear-filled, embarrassed, isolated, misfit reject who was very confused. Maybe I, too, would have resorted to drink and drugs to hide my pain. And as for my future, what hope?
I am that confused I do not know how to behave, or, begin to have the knowledge of how to fill in a form. I am extremely angry, resentful, bitter… prison is not the place for me! It may take a lifetime to change me, but, to begin with I need understanding as to why I am who I am. For in the first 17 vulnerable childhood years of my life I have had no choice but to trust society to form and nurture me. Look at the result.
What about the next 17 years? They start in prison…
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