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Young offenders are "warehoused" and "left languishing in overcrowded secure accommodation", according to the lord chief justice, writes Clare Jerrom.

Lord Woolf said that punishment for street crime and violence needs to be "robust", and it is vitally important that "young offenders acknowledge and recognise their accountability for the suffering of their victim as a consequence of their actions".

But, due to the pressures on the prison service and lack of resources, a custodial sentence "will not achieve the intended long term change we need", he told a London conference organised by the Michael Sieff Foundation.

His comments were made as two 16-year-old brothers were cleared of the murder of Damilola Taylor, who died in November 2000 on a housing estate in Peckham, south London. The 10-year-old died from a wound to his leg, and it was alleged the boys had stabbed him with a piece of glass, but they denied murder, manslaughter and assault with intent to rob.

Woolf told the conference that 76 per cent of males, and 58 per cent of women under 21 re-offend within two years of being released.

"This is a terrible indictment of the system and we must find ways to break the repetitive cycle," he said.