Sentences for young criminals should be more severe, according to young people themselves. They say that prisons and young offender institutions (YOIs) should be harsher environments, that life sentences should mean life and that there are too many legal loopholes for escaping justice.

The call for tougher action is contained in the Metropolitan Police Authority's (MPA) youth scrutiny report, which was published last week after six months of consultation with more than 1,000 young Londoners.

YOIs were repeatedly described as youth clubs and holiday camps. One young person who had received a custodial sentence said: “It's like being in your bedroom but locked up.”

The report describes young people as more punitive than adults. “They were asked why this was the case. They told the MPA that ‘it [violent crime] is happening to us',” the report says.

Youth crave tough justice

When young people were asked why they were more punitive than adults. ' Violent crime is happening to us,' came the answer

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The study also reveals the depth of young people's disenchantment with the police. “A single negative encounter can result in an overall negative impression of the entire service,” it says, adding that stop and search remains a key concern for many young people.

The report makes 53 recommendations. These include increasing the police presence in areas near schools and colleges and increasing the visibility of police Safer Transport Teams at transport crime hotspots.

Local authorities are urged to involve young people in crime-reduction services and to encourage intergenerational projects that bring together people of all ages.

Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, tells Children & Young People Now Online: “I find it disturbing that young people who have spent time in prison should be so blasé about it.”
www.mpa.gov.uk

Slap 'n' tickle

An 18-month investigation or “a quick bollocking”? Police Review (May 30) says that new misconduct regulations could allow bosses to administer the latter to officers guilty of minor slips. Vic Marshall, an officer seconded to the Home Office to work on the new rules, says that officers who have done “something stupid” rather than straying badly should be dealt with quickly. He cites the case of a lovestruck officer who sent a racy text to his former wife rather than to his new belle, as intended. The ex thought that she had a stalker and the investigation into the cock-up lasted 18 months.

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