Five children's charities joined forces with a leading barrister
this week to launch an initiative to call for a rethink in the
debate about youth crime.
The Shape Children's Lives and the Youth Crime initiative funded by
Rethinking Crime and Punishment and backed by Barnardo's, the
Children's Society, The National Children's Bureau, NCH and NSPCC
with rehabilitation agency Nacro, hopes to give a voice to young
people in the debate on youth crime.
"Children in trouble are often children in need," said Baroness
Helena Kennedy QC. "But do we respond with sentences that work,
rather than those that just sound 'tough'? And, crucially, do we
rehabilitate effectively?"
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Liberal Democrat spokesperson on children, Paul Burstow,
highlighted that almost one in three prisoners were former
looked-after children.
"This proportion is an indictment of the care services, which churn
out socially and educationally disadvantaged children who have
fewer life chances to avoid becoming a prison statistic."
- Go to
www.shapethedebate.org.uk
