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Secure Training Centres

My Lords, I am delighted that the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, has secured this debate and introduced it with her usual eloquence and passion. This is an important issue. I want to look briefly at how we might prevent offending in the first place and touch on the issue of substance misuse among young people in custody, but I will refer mainly to how we treat young offenders and how the focus should be on rehabilitation. Perhaps I may start with substance misuse. I declare an interest as chair of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. A large number of young people entering STCs have a problem with drugs or alcohol, and two pilot programmes in STCs are looking at that. It is not surprising that a number of factors identified by research and by the youth justice system increase the risk of problematic behaviour such as substance misuse. These factors are truancy from school or under-achievement, lack of positive role models in the family, poor parenting, family conflict and risk of harm, homelessness or poor housing, and mental illness, including cognitive and behavioural disorders. How can we change the lives affected by such a multitude of adverse factors? Youth resettlement pathways identified in the Youth Justice Board report Youth Resettlement are linked to those factors and to good case management and to the Every Child Matters agenda. Preventing children from becoming affected by such adverse factors must, of course, be a priority. Every Child Matters and the subsequent Children Act 2004 is a start, as are various Bills such as the Childcare and Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bills, potentially the Education Bill, and Sure Start. All emphasise the need to join up services to intervene in the causes of poor child welfare. The respect action plan includes new funding of £28 million to set up intensive networks of family support schemes and to provide parenting help. We must be vigilant as to how those good intentions are played out. Certainly, just punishing young people is not enough. Young people tell us constantly that there is not enough for them to do in their communities, and few centres where young people can safely gather. Once young people get into trouble, we have a problem—it is a difficult thing to reverse, although not impossible. We need to look carefully at what is happening across the youth justice system to make sure that we are not making things worse. The inquiry of the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, for the Howard League for Penal Reform, which has been referred to already, states in the section on psychological impacts:"““Children in the secure children’s estate are all vulnerable, needy and challenging””." Yes, and many have been in care, and many have the problems I described earlier. That report identifies key forces that should be guaranteed to ensure that the best possible chance for rehabilitation exists. These include staff training, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, has referred, staffing levels, respect through responsibility based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, exercise and outdoor activity, restorative justice, privacy for individuals and addressing mental health needs. STCs should provide opportunities for young people such as education, vocational courses, healthcare, exercise facilities and so on. They were set up to do so. There must by now be examples of good practice, and the noble Baroness has referred to one in Scotland. Can the Minister give us some examples and say how good practice might be shared? When I read examples given in the Carlile report and elsewhere I wonder what is going on and how we can hope to rehabilitate when young people clearly see themselves as being degraded and mistreated and having what dignity that might remain to them taken away. Strip searching is one example. The report talks of a boy called David who said that he felt it abnormal to have people looking at him naked. He was not told what was going to happen to him, and all orders were shouted. Later, when he was banging on his cell door because he was bored and upset, a group of officers in riot gear carrying plastic shields pushed him up to the window. He was then restrained by being held down naked on a stone floor. What I know of people—not just young people, who are more vulnerable than adults—is that violence begets violence and resentment, and that you do not treat damaged people by inflicting more damage. This is simply asking for trouble and for there to be little escape from the revolving door of custody, release and more custody. If the system worked, I might have more sympathy, but it clearly does not, at least not for most people. The national specification for substance misuse for juveniles in custody identifies effective practice, which includes engendering an atmosphere of safety, assessing need, providing education, providing treatment and support, making sure that there is an individual care plan that continues to support the young person, and ensuring that interventions are planned and connected to each other—again, joined-up action. This seems similar to what young people in custody need generally if they are to be rehabilitated. For some, rehabilitation may not be possible, but surely most young people will respond better to a regime of help and support rather than unmitigated and cruel punishment. We have inspections of STCs; we have anecdotal evidence; we have research. How do we translate good intentions into practice, and where are we going right?