NCJ Number
157435
Date Published
1994
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Great Britain's secure training order is a retrograde and damaging measure that will increase rather than reduce offending by juveniles.
Abstract
Clause 1 of the Government's Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill will introduce a new sentencing power for courts to pass a "secure training order," under which juveniles aged 12 to 14 will be detained in a new system of secure institutions. There will be five centers, each with 40 beds. The maximum sentence will be 2 years, and sentences will be determinate, with half spent in custody and half in the community under supervision. Those eligible for a secure training order will be young offenders who have committed three or more imprisonable offenses and who have reoffended during, or have been in breach of, a supervision order. The secure training order is opposed by organizations that work with young offenders, and the few organizations that have expressed support in principle for a secure training order have said they favor a different type of order than that proposed by the Government. A range of powers already exists to detain those youths for whom secure custody is necessary. A small number of additional local secure facilities are needed in some areas to enable courts to make proper use of these existing powers. A sentence of detention in a new and separate system of secure institutions would be a retrograde step, however. It would mean unnecessarily confining more juveniles in secure facilities; this would increase their chances of reoffending upon release.