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They are cheaper than custodial schemes and seem to prevent more young offenders from slipping back into criminal behaviour. No wonder politicians are beginning to get excited by intensive supervision and surveillance programmes, reports Mark Hunter.

The number of under-18 year olds in custody rose above 3,000 for the first time last year. This increase followed a string of initiatives to cut street crime and mobile phone theft, but perversely flies in the face of repeated studies showing that prison for children simply does not work.

The latest of these studies is a comparison between two of the Youth Justice Board’s flagship interventions - the detention training order (DTO) and the intensive supervision and surveillance programme (ISSP). Both measures are designed to be used only for the most persistent offenders and both include strong elements of "purposeful activity" intended to help young people address the root causes of their offending behaviour. DTOs, however, include several months of custody while ISSPs take place wholly within the community.

The comparison saw the community-based ISSP perform with flying colours while the custodial-based DTO fell far short of expectations. The investigators, from PA Consulting and Oxford University, found that young offenders serving a DTO average only 12.7 hours of purposeful activity a week, 7.5 of which involve education and training. This compares with an average 25.8 hours of purposeful activity and direct supervision of young offenders on ISSPs.

What is more, most young offenders beginning a DTO have to wait more than two weeks before their activity programme begins. Those given an ISSP usually begin the same day. Given the fact that a six-month ISSP costs £6,000 compared with £21,000 for six months in a young offenders institution, the community-based intervention appears to represent value indeed.

But does it work? At present it is difficult to be certain of ISSPs’ impact on young people’s reoffending rates. The programme is not yet available throughout the country and most ISSPs have been in operation for less than 18 months. But there are recidivism figures available for young people on DTOs and they are not impressive. Less than 50 per cent last a year without reoffending, around 30 per cent reoffend but at a reduced rate, and the remaining 25 per cent reoffend at a similar or increased rate.

This poor record does, finally, appear to be persuading the government that custody is not the answer for most youth crime. Indeed, from January next year, ISSPs will gradually begin to replace DTOs as the intervention of choice for persistent young offenders as the programme is rolled out across the whole of England and Wales.

Around 4,200 persistent young offenders each year will be subject to six-month ISSPs involving surveillance, such as electronic tagging or voice verification and an intense programme of education and training, offending behaviour work and one-to-one supervision.

According to the crime reduction charity Nacro, the move away from custodial sentencing is long overdue. "The intensive supervision and surveillance scheme has already shown that it can divert persistent young offenders from crime in cases where other approaches, including custody, have failed," says a spokesperson. "Any national roll out of the scheme is to be welcomed."

In particular, the charity hopes greater community supervision could help break the cycle whereby young people who have just become involved in crime are further criminalised by the justice system.

Nacro states that nine out of 10 juvenile offenders leaving young offenders institutions are back before the courts within two years of release. And, all too often, what young people don’t know about crime when they go into custody they have learned by the time they come out.

In contrast, the ISSP programme seeks to change young offenders’ lives by education, training, reparation to victims and highly focused work to change offenders’ attitudes. This is combined with electronic tagging and a high level of personal contact from volunteer workers.

Children’s charity NCH has also welcomed the move away from custodial sentencing although public policy officer Jackie McCluskey cautioned against the overuse of highly intensive surveillance programmes.

"This sort of programme is only really intended for the very serious end of persistent offenders," she says. "So while we would welcome less use of custody, we should recognise that not all young offenders need that level of supervision and if you over-intervene then you can have quite a damaging effect. There are a range of sentencing options and I wouldn’t like to see the ISSP used as a default option."

Of course any move away from custodial sentencing is bound to be seen in some quarters as the government going "soft on crime". This has been denied vehemently by chairperson of the YJB Lord Warner.

"ISSPs are not a soft option - they are demanding programmes which help reduce the likelihood of re-offending. They avoid the disruptive pitfalls of removing young people from their communities and then having to resettle them. We are committed to ensuring that ISSPs continue to retain the confidence of courts and communities."

For Bob Baird, manager of the Leeds ISSP, there is no question that the programme is having a beneficial effect on the city’s persistent young offenders.

"Our results have been very encouraging, when you consider that these are the real hard core persistent offenders we are working with," he says. "Our rate of completion is approaching 50 per cent and the majority of those who are completing the programme are doing so arrest free. The level of offending also appears to be a lot lower even in those who do not manage to complete the programme."

The Leeds ISSP currently has around 30 young offenders on its books. Each is subject to an intensive programme focusing on five core areas: at least 15 hours of education and training per week, family support, interpersonal skills, challenging offending, and restorative justice.

The 15-strong team of youth justice officers and youth workers work closely with volunteers, and agencies such as the Connexions service to ensure that each young offender receives a highly personalised service.

However, Baird is keen to stress that the surveillance part of programme is taken just as seriously as the educational elements: "Most of our young offenders are wearing tags and are subject to electronic curfews. We do check up to make sure they are where they are meant to be, so there is a very intrusive aspect to it all. We also have a strong relationship with the police. We share information with the police and all the young offenders are aware of that."

Overall, Baird is convinced that the ISSP experience is offering up hard evidence that non-custodial sentencing is the way forward for youth justice. "Of course there is a small minority who will have to be detained because society needs protecting," he says. "But for most we have shown that we can intervene in a way that benefits both the young offenders and society as a whole."

- For further information go to website www.youth-justice-board.gov.uk

ISSP facts

• The average age of young people on ISSPs is 15.8 years.
• The mean number of recorded offences in the 12 months before coming in to the scheme is 10.3.
• Their score on Asset, the YJB’s system of assessing vulnerability and risk factors for offending behaviour, is 24.8 compared with a national average of 14.4.
• At the beginning of their programme a mainstream school was the main source of recent educational provision in only 16 per cent of cases.
• Sixty-six per cent of those no longer of school attending age were unemployed. Some 84 per cent of this group had been excluded from school at some time.
• In 85 per cent of cases, the young person coming onto an ISSP was thought to be associating with predominately criminal peers. When interviewed, 41 per cent said most of their friends committed crime.
• The mean reading age for those on ISSPs at the beginning of their programme is 10.6 years; five years below their average age.
• Some 89 per cent of those young people interviewed at the beginning of ISSPs have admitted taking alcohol or drugs and 57 per cent of the young offenders have admitted to committing offences because they were drunk or on drugs. Just over half said they had committed offences to pay for drugs.

Source: Oxford University/PA Consulting