Today sees the release of a major new Transition to Adulthood Alliance report on the impact that acquired brain injuries can have on young people in childhood and in their transition to adulthood, and outlines the criminal justice consequences if these injuries go untreated.
 
In Repairing Shattered Lives: Brain injury and its implications for criminal justice, Prof Huw Williams of the University of Exeter notes that a shocking 60% of young people in custody report having experienced some kind of brain injury. Acquired brain injuries can lead maturing brains to “misfire,” interrupting the development of temperance (ability to restrain and moderate actions), social judgement and the ability to control impulses. If undetected these injuries, which may be the result of falls, sporting injuries, car accidents or fights, can leave young people untreated and increase their risk of offending.
 
Report author Prof Huw Williams said:
 

“The young brain, being a work in progress, is prone to “risk taking” and so is more vulnerable to getting injured in the first place, and to suffer subtle to more severe problems in attention, concentration and managing one’s mood and behaviour.
 
“It is rare that brain injury is considered by criminal justice professionals when assessing the rehabilitative needs of an offender even tough recent studies from the UK have shown that prevalence of TBI among prisoners is as high as 60%. Brain injury has been shown to be a condition that may increase the risk of offending, and it is also a strong ‘marker’ for other key factors that indicate risk for offending.”

 
The report recommends early intervention to identify and manage brain injuries, including training for school staff, to ensure that young people receive the required neuro-rehabilitative support. Repairing Shattered Lives also calls for increased awareness of brain injuries throughout the criminal justice process, including screening of young people as standard.
 
Another report also published today, by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, identifies the wider impact that brain injuries can have on maturing brains, as well as their social consequences, and adds further weight to the findings by T2A.
 
Prof. Huw Williams will also be presenting at a Disabilities Trust brain injury and offending seminar as part of the launch of groundbreaking research on brain injury among adult male offenders on the 14th November 2012. You can see more information about the event here.
 
You can read an executive summary here or the report in full here.
 
The report has been covered by the Independent, Guardian, BBC and Children and Young People Now.

In a House of Lords debate on Young Offenders employment and training yesterday, tabled by Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill, a number of peers cited the Transition to Adulthood Alliance’s work on maturity and the importance of effective transitions for young adults in the criminal justice process.
 
Drawing on various T2A publications and on the experience of the Alliances’ pilot projects, Baroness Healey called for a greater use of restorative justice and referenced T2A’s recommendations that local authorities link up with crime reduction partnerships and the new Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that young people have access to appropriate accommodation. She also stressed the importance of wrap-around services for young people leaving custody and for effective “through the gate” and resettlement support.
 
Liberal Democrat Peer Baroness Linklater, whose interest in prison reform is longstanding, noted that the T2A pilots, stating that “the success is because it tailors its interventions specifically to the needs of young adults,” and called such initiatives to be more widespread.
 
Baroness Nye, a Labour Peer, spoke about the T2A manifesto proposal that local FE colleges should be twinned with YOIs, while Lord Aberdare, a Crossbencher and NACRO board member, called for a “seamless process of support, starting while young people are still in custody and continuing all the way into sustained education or employment”.
 
Responding for the Government, Work and Pensions Minister Lord Freud said: “Young offenders face multiple barriers in accessing employment, training and jobs on release from prison. If we are to tackle these problems and take effective steps to reduce reoffending, there has to be a co-ordinated response across government departments”.

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Debbie Pippard, Vice Chair of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, has today given oral evidence to the House of Commons Justice Committee, which is conducting a short inquiry into Youth Justice.
 
Drawing on the Alliance’s body of research and the evidence of the T2A pilot projects, Debbie Pippard stressed the consideration that should be given to the maturity of young adults in the criminal justice process.
 
Other leading figures giving evidence to the Committee include Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Children’s Commissioner and Dr Becky Morland, Consultant Counselling Psychologist and Senior Manager of Health and Family Intervention Team, Peterborough Youth Offending Service.
 
Footage of the evidence session can be viewed online here.

On Friday 12th October the West Mercia Transition to Adulthood pilot project, delivered by youth charity YSS, hosted a visit by two local Members of Parliament, Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative, Shrewsbury) and Philip Dunne MP (Conservative, Ludlow).
 
Both MPs took the opportunity to hear at first-hand about the experiences of the young adults who have taken part in the pilot programme, as well as their views on issues such as the challenge of securing employment as an ex-offender.
 
Following the successful meeting, further events are planned to help connect employment opportunities in the region and young adults with an offending history, something both MPs have undertaken to support.

The Transition to Adulthood Alliance has today welcomed the publication of Transitions: an inspection of the transition arrangements from youth to adult services in the criminal justice system, a Criminal Justice Joint Inspection report into young adult transitions in both custody and in the community.

The multi-agency study, which draws on inspections made at six locations in England and Wales, makes reference to the Alliance’s work on maturity and highlights the T2A pilot projects in Birmingham, London and Worcestershire.

While welcoming examples of good practice, the report also details a number of key areas in which insufficient attention has been given to effective transitions:

• Not all young people in the community who were eligible for transfer to adult-based services were identified – so transfer, when initiated, was undertaken too late and with insufficient information;
• Young people were not always as informed or involved as they should have been, and some young people reported that in custody, they felt unprepared for the reality of a move to an adult establishment
• There was a lack of work with those in health and education, employment and training to ensure that services needed by the young person were continued
• There was insufficient timely sharing of information between the youth-based and adult-based services to enable sentence plans to be delivered without interruption; and
• In custody, insufficient forward planning and communication led to a gap in sentence planning and delivery of interventions after young people had transferred to an over-18 YOI/prison.