Youth chief urges cut in custody

Offenders have to learn basic skills such as eating properly, says Mrs Done

The head of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales has urged magistrates and judges to impose fewer custodial terms on young offenders.

In her first major interview since being appointed in February, Frances Done told BBC News she was determined to "drive the numbers down".

She wants the courts to make greater use of community penalties.

But she said there was a risk more teenagers could be locked up amid new government plans to tackle knife crime.

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About 2,900 10 to 17-year-olds are currently locked up in secure children's homes, secure training centres and young offender institutions.

In April, the Youth Justice Board (YJB) failed to achieve its three-year target to cut youth custody numbers by 10% - even though the use of such terms fell as a proportion of sentences imposed.

Mrs Done said the challenge for the board was to ensure that judges and magistrates felt confident that community sentences were "robust" enough alternatives to locking people up.

'Rigorous regime'

She highlighted one scheme - intensive fostering - which is being piloted and involves a support team working with an offender and their family over a 12-month period.

Mrs Done said she hoped the programme would show that it was an effective alternative to custody for young offenders.

"They've never had boundaries in their lives, they've had chaotic existences.

"They have to learn to get up, they have to learn to eat properly, they have to learn to do things at a time which has been agreed with their carer.

"It's a very rigorous regime," she said.

Mrs Done held high-ranking posts at the Audit Commission, Manchester City Council and Rochdale Borough Council before taking up her post at the YJB.

The previous permanent chairman, Professor Rod Morgan, resigned in January 2007, saying young offender institutions were being "swamped".

She's got to get in the real world Martin Boxhall Crime victim

He had previously warned of a crisis as the number of young people under 18 in custody reached record levels.

Mrs Done welcomed government moves to ensure more 16 and 17-year-olds were prosecuted if they were found to be carrying knives.

But she acknowledged it could lead to more teenagers appearing in court and being given custodial sentences.

"There is obviously a potential risk that this will drive higher numbers into the youth justice system," she said.

"What we have to make sure is that we use that opportunity to identify those young people who really need the support and attention who otherwise actually might not have come to the attention of the criminal justice system until something much more serious happens," she said.

Mrs Done said she supported early intervention to identify children who might be at risk of offending and take action to prevent it.

But Martin Boxhall from Berkshire, who was attacked by a youth who beat him unconscious with beer bottles and slashed his face with a knife, told BBC Five Live Breakfast Mrs Done should realise that some offenders have to be locked up.

"There are some people, some young people, that either won't be helped, can't be helped, or are so dangerous, if they are being helped they must do it behind bars," he said.

"She's got to get in the real world and realise that."

David Chater from the charity, Rainer, insisted incarcerating young people was not always the best way to stop them committing crimes.

Targeting persistent offenders with projects aimed at "trying to re-engage them with school, trying to give them some boundaries, trying to divert them away from poor peer groups" had cut arrest rates by more than three quarters in some areas, he said.

The YJB is an executive non-departmental public body that oversees the youth justice system in England and Wales.

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