Tighten up the law! (Young Offenders - What Should The Law Do With Them?)

Member Name: kalliemaile

Product:	Young Offenders - What Should The Law Do With Them?
Date:	24/08/04 (333 review reads)
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In today's society it is always publicised how young people are getting worse. Maybe it is true, they are getting worse, but has anyone thought about why? More and more young people are appearing in court for offences, often drug, theft, vandalism or assault related offences too, and how are they punished? A juvenile detention centre. To be honest these centres aren't really much of a punishment for the offenders. Maybe there is a bit of social isolation, not being able to mix with your usual friends, but its very likely that new friends will be found in the centre. But apart from that where is the punishment, is it the pool tables, the sky t.v, the most up to date games consoles or maybe its the football matches and ruby games? I DON'T THINK SO!!!

Surely the whole point of going to what should be the adult equivalent of prison should actually teach these people a lesson? Make them regret what they did right? But the truth is it doesn't not really, all it does is give them e reward for what they have done. Why make things so easy for them? If the young persons offence is so serious that a court feels they are unsuitable to remain in the public them why should they have all these privileges? Many of them end up with a better life than they had before, after all, how many homes have every type of games console and how many people have a pool table at their disposal? Im not saying they have free access to all these things 24/7 and there is no down side to being in the centre, of course they still have their jobs to do, there are times when they have to stay in their rooms etc... but when you look at the whole picture, really they are not in too much hardship.

A few years ago, I met a girl who I will just call Mel, she was living in a women's hostel and I met her because I had gone to the hostel to see a friend who's parents had kicked her out. Lisa came across as a nice enough girl but then she kept making references
to when she was 'inside'. I asked what she had done, she said she had been out one night with her friends and they had mugged two little girls for their mobile phones, these girls had only been 11 years old!
Mel also wore an electronic tag, she had been in the detention centre for a year and then had a 6 month follow up with the tag and she had to attend the young offenders centre. The thought of her having to wear the tag wasn't very appealing and I told her so but she said it wasn't a problem because she could still go out after curfew. I wondered how until that night I went out with my friend and she said she would come too. She sat on the bed and slipped the tag over her foot and left it on her bed, she them climbed out her window (so the hostel staff would not see her leave) and said she would meet us at the end of the road. I couldn't believe it.
Eventually Mel got a call from the centre monitoring her tag asking if she had been out, she told them that she hadn't and they came around because they thought there must be a problem with her tag, they cut it off and fitted a new one. This happened several times before they eventually, took her tag off and took her back to court firstly for going out and taking her tag off (they called round a couple of times and she wasn't home!!!) and secondly for breaking their equipment.
Mel was tag free for 4 weeks until her court date arrived and what happened in court? NOTHING!!! She was basically given a slap on the wrist and told she was to continue her visits to the young offenders team for an extra month on the year she had left. UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Today Mel has a further 6 outstanding charges, assault on a police officer, 3 assault, 1 GBH, 1 theft and one burglary, I know this because I saw her a few days ago, the problem is she seems proud of these offences, she is going to court soon and I just hope this time they realise that something has to be done.


But really what can be done? The tagging system can fail, the detention centre is a holiday, having to see the youth offending team isn't exactly awful, and of course there is always community service, which in some cases may be a better option because having to work and getting nothing for it is a something that they aren't going to enjoy too much but really for the more serious offences it just isn't enough.

I don't know really what should be done with the young offenders today but I definitely think the law goes too lightly on them and that the detention centres should be changed into a place where they don't feel they are being rewarded for what they have done.

I guess the more proactive thing to do would be to sort the problems out young. Now don't get me wrong, I don't blame social services, they can be very useful but many of the friends I had growing up who go into trouble with the police were in the care of social services. Many of them had problems and the answer was give them some money, take them out to dinner, I don't think they had enough love or attention (although I'm not saying that condones what they are doing) they haven't had someone to explain there are right and wrong ways to do things, one person I know who has been in alot of trouble, say they were dragged up not brought up, so who can blame them. Although I don't see that as any excuse I can understand how their environment growing up can effect the way they are now, for example if they were always given money when they wanted something, and later when they reach 18 and social services tell them its time for them to look after themselves and they are maybe on benefits they can find that they have less money than before because they aren't being given everything anymore so they go out and take what they want.

I know also that some young offenders come from good families and maybe they get in with the wrong c
rowd, so I definitely am not always blaming upbringing, please don't think I can't see this from other perspectives because I can, sometimes things must just go wrong for these people and they feel they have to do these things which land them in trouble, but whatever the reason for their actions, they need to realise what they have done is wrong and they shouldn't just get off with a slap on the wrist.

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