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Children-run courts scheme axed after funding ended
Prime Minister David Cameron
A controversial Government project which encouraged children as young as 10 to administer justice to young thugs has been scrapped.
The £487,000 Lancashire-based peer panel project, likened to the “peer courts” system in America, saw yobs standing before youngsters of similar ages, and their victims, to agree a way to make up for their anti-social behaviour.
Preston was the first city in Europe to pilot the scheme in 2007 and at its inception there were hopes it would be rolled out nationwide.
But the project, which aimed to deal with 300 panels a year, attracted controversy after it emerged it dealt with just four in the first five months.
Critics debated whether it was appropriate to allow children as young as 10 – the age of criminal responsibility – to punish other young people.
In 2009, after 169 panels, the scheme was hailed a success and scooped the National Justice Centre’s award for Tackling Youth Crime, though the figure was below the initial target of 300 a year.
The charity says all cases that went through the process were resolved but were unable to give a final figure on how many panels took place when the scheme ended four weeks ago after the Government decided not to extend funding.
NACRO, the offenders’ charity which oversaw the running of the panels, said: “The project was funded by the Invest to Save Budget (ISB) from the Ministry of Justice with part funding from Preston City Council. The funding was designed for new projects on a set period of time. It was given to projects with a view to piloting schemes and saving money in future. It was clear from the beginning the project would only be funded for three years.
“This pilot has not run anywhere else on this scale. As far as we are aware, it is not running anywhere else at the moment. With the new coalition government’s commitment to Restorative Justice, we expect to see similar projects being formed and would welcome a move in this direction.”
She added: “Through the Peer Panel project, a peer street law and peer mentoring scheme have been developed for 16 – 25 year olds. This scheme teaches young people about the consequences of crime and trains them up to become mentors themselves for other young people. Nacro are continuing to do a scaled down restorative justice in the community. All the staff on the YIP projects are trained in restorative justice and activities take place in Brookfield to which we still have access, or other local community centres.”
The lease is up on the Winckley Square building where the panels were housed and a second building the charity used, on Langcliffe Road, Brookfield, has been handed back to the community.
The Ministry of Justice, which was responsible for the panels and for paying out the £487,000 Treasury grant, was not available for comment.
Tim Ewen, head of Criminal Justice for Lancashire Police, said: “ It is unfortunate that any means by which we can change offending behaviour and provide satisfaction for victims comes to an end. The scheme has delivered some good examples in this regard.”
Preston Labour MP Mark Hendrick said: “There was some very good work being done with young people in order to reduce anti social behaviour and help offenders realise the errors of their ways and be more socially responsible.
“The aims were laudable but there was an issue around the amount of attention young offenders would be required to receive afterwards such as follow up visits from police and other interventions which were probably quite expensive and in absence of concrete evidence of how effective its work is given the amount of funding received it is right to question as to whether the funding should continue or not.”
John Fassenfelt of the Magistrates’ Association welcomed the scrapping of the scheme.
He said: “I thought it was a very expensive way of dispensing justice to young people which could have been just as economical through the courts. I welcome the fact the Government have come to their senses.”
The scheme, which was based in the restorative justice centre on Winckley Square in the city, dealt with offenders under 17 who admitted their guilt and were referred by police or youth offending teams.
Hearings were held in a large room in the centre designed to resemble a courtroom, in which offenders faced panels of four children under adult supervision.
The panel were able to ask offenders to sign an acceptable behaviour contracts, or pay back for their offence, such as by clearing up graffiti, and apologise to victims.
New Prime Minister David Cameron admitted he was sceptical at the start of the project in 2007, when he was still the leader of the opposition.
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Comments
There are 3 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Greg Lane
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 10:42 PMThankfully the Labour loonies have been sent packing, but there is still a high price to pay for backing them. It shouldn't need spelling out, but for the thickies out there - the last place this government will throwing money at is a Labour stronghold. The North West will the first for cuts (no bad thing in this particular case) and last for funding.
Diesel10
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 09:07 PMNo doubt all those we see in the ugly-bug-ball gallery went through this process and what good did it do? The whole thing was a joke and viewed as such by those attending it. It was also a canny way of keeping the figures on youth crime down.
beast155
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 06:16 PMwhat else can you say. BARMY! labour this along with all you other looney policies is why you are no longer running the country. i vote labour but when you hear of things like this you just have to ask why?
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