Prisons minister Damian Hinds recently announced that he was going to “move away” from the practice of “presuming automatic transition” for young people to adult prisons on their 18th birthdays.
Elizabeth Haslam, a former nurse, founded the Michael Sieff Foundation in memory of her late husband in 1987. Immediate motivation came from the publication of the report into the death of Jasmine Beckford some four years earlier. Jasmine had been beaten and starved to death by her stepfather.
Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. The other week, on the radio during primetime news, I listened to one of the most disingenuous debates I have ever heard that confirmed this mantra to a tee. Regrettably, it concerned the sensitive and emotive topic of deaths in custody.
In all sorts of areas, the savings imposed by the Treasury are driving government policy, except, of course, when it is unacceptable to the tabloid press.
Among the myriad challenges of transforming young lives, rehabilitation of young offenders will always be among the toughest. The number of 16- to 25-year-olds behind bars has soared by one-third in the past decade while the majority go on to reoffend, reflecting the enormity of the task.
Basing policy on evidence seems straightforward. But we continue to see politicians speak out on issues with the scantest of evidence and with particular audiences in mind. The most extreme example of late was the coverage about gangs after the summer unrest.
They say that a week is a long time in politics. Quite. As predicted in these pages for many months, the new Tory Secretary of State Michael Gove has renamed the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) as the Department for Education.
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