Eighteen months after the Government’s response to its report,
the Justice Committee is ‘not
persuaded’ that the narrow approach taken by ministers to deal
with young adults in the criminal justice system has had any
positive outcomes.
The last Committee published a report on the
treatment of young adults aged 18 to 25 in the criminal justice
system in October 2016. Recognising that the brain is still
developing up to the mid-20s, and that some policies and
practices may do more harm than good, it proposed a new
strategic approach. This was because of the failure of successive
Governments to deal with young adults effectively which the
Committee found was crucial to enable them to make a
successful transition to a crime-free adulthood. However,
the then Government’s response, published in
January 2017, did not accept many of the wide-ranging,
evidence-based recommendations.
The Committee took evidence from the Ministry about its preferred
approach and the progress it had made in implementing the
recommendations it did accept. In a further report published
today, MPs conclude that the Ministry of Justice has adopted its
current approach to reform due to cuts to its wider budget and
the need for practicality.
The report makes recommendations for ensuring that a more
distinct approach is taken to young adults, on the basis of
stronger evidence than the Ministry has gathered, particularly
about how young adults are treated in prison. The Government must
commit to more fundamental reform in its Justice 2030 project.
Chair of the Justice Committee, MP, said:
“The Government’s response to our report in the last
Parliament was disappointing because it failed to acknowledge the
strength of evidence for more significant change. Having looked
at this issue again, it is clear the current approach taken by
ministers is not yet working and we are not convinced that it
will.
“While the 18-25 age group is one that offends the most,
young adults have the greatest potential to make the transition
to a crime-free adulthood while the brain is still developing.
That is why a clear and effective strategy from the Government in
this area is essential.
“The waste of young adults’ talents and energies is one of
the great social challenges of our time and the lack of action is
failing society at large. The public continues to experience
crimes which should be preventable and society can gain from
these young adults’ contributions if they are given the right
opportunities.
“Over the next decade, we expect prison and probation
services to have developed cultures which recognise young adults’
strengths and support them effectively. There is an overwhelming
enthusiasm in the sector for change.”
Conclusions and recommendations:
- The Committee makes recommendations to ensure the distinct
needs of young adults up to the age of 25 are considered in
various aspects of the Ministry’s activities, including the
cross-departmental Reducing Reoffending Taskforce and efforts to
address racial inequalities in response to the Lammy Review.
- The Committee welcomes the creation of a probation service
board to oversee work on young offenders and young adults, which
it would like to see replicated for prisons.
- The Committee is encouraged to see much greater weight being
given to maturity in the treatment of young adults, but found no
evidence of a defined approach for what should happen once
maturity screening has been done or the impact this is having,
even in pilot areas. It is also not clear how the Ministry
is assessing the impact of its approach. The Committee calls on
them to specify the measures by which they intend to monitor
improvement in outcomes for young adults in custody and in the
community.
- The Committee is disappointed to find limited progress on
addressing gaps in the evidence base for effective practice with
young adults. The predecessor Committee recommended these gaps be
addressed as a matter of urgency.
- The Committee recommends that consideration be given to
providing additional support to those assessed as lacking
maturity.
- The Committee welcomes the progress made by HMPPS and the
Youth Justice Board in improving the attention paid to the
“cliff-edge” transition between the youth and adult systems and
the particular needs of people who have been looked after by the
local authority.
- The Committee calls on the Ministry to take decisive action
on more fundamental reform. It advocates revisiting urgently
previous recommendations for a new framework for the disclosure
of criminal records for children and young adults. By 2030, the
Committee expects prison and probation services to have developed
approaches which properly assess and address young adults’ needs.
