Young adults (18-24) are only 10% of the population but account for a third of all crime, and are also the most likely group to be a victim of crime. This group will be a vital consideration for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) as they set their local policing priorities and commission services to reduce crime and reoffending.

This briefing has been prepared for PCC candidates to explore how they can commission services differently for young adults, and embed a more effective approach to young adult offenders in their local area. It brings together the most recent research and practice to demonstrate what works and how reoffending rates can be reduced while achieving cost benefit.

It can be downloaded by clicking here

The T2A Alliance believes that to achieve their aim of cutting crime and anti-social behaviour, PCCs should:

1. SUPPORT common-sense policing of young adults

Commission services that give police more community based options, and support restorative solutions for young adults.

2. WORK WITH PARTNERS to support diversion where appropriate

Link with health and social care agencies to ensure effective diversion, and to tackle the multiple problems of many prolific young adult offenders.

3. TAKE A LEAD in tackling young adult reoffending locally

Ensure local partners work together to ensure a smooth transition between youth and adult criminal justice services in order to reduce reoffending, and support a distinct local strategy targeting what works for young adults.

4. ENGAGE with young adults Consult young adults as part of duty to engage with victims. Work to improve relationships between young adults and the police.

This paper was produced by Revolving Doors Agency, a member of the T2A Alliance, as part of its First Generation project

The Minister for Justice, Lord McNally, has confirmed that the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is to produce a commissioning strategy for young adult offenders. 

In a response to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Lord Ramsbotham on 24 July 2012, the Minister said that the report would be disseminated to commissioners and service managers in due course.

Lord Ramsbotham:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions have been taken by the Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service to identify what works in terms of interventions with young adults aged 18 to 24.[HL1682]

The Minster replied:

The Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service are committed to evaluating offender management programmes and other approaches to working with offenders in order to improve understanding of what works to reduce re-offending.

Work to date has considered the effectiveness of interventions for all adult offenders rather than targeting the effectiveness for those aged 18-24. NOMS is developing a specific commissioning strategy for young adult offenders and is currently examining both the impact of cognitive skills training with young adults and how to prevent recreational drug use developing into drug dependency.

The findings from this work will be shared with commissioners and providers of offender services in due course. NOMS will also continue to work with providers to assist them in robustly evaluating existing and innovative interventions in order to further develop the evidence base for this group of offenders.

The T2A Alliance report ‘Pathways from Crime’ recommended that the T2A approach should be developed throughout the criminal justice process, and identified the 10 steps in the system where a more effective service can be provided.

The T2A pilots, which have been running since 2009 in three areas of England, have been shown to reduce reoffending rates, reduce breach of community sentences, and improve social and employment outcomes for young adults aged 16-24.

First Generation Project

House of Lords Hansard, 11 June 2012

Justice: Sentencing of Young Offenders

Lord Dholakia: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that there has been a significant reduction in youth crime that is mainly attributable to the work of the Youth Justice Board, which deals with offenders up to the age of 18? Will he consider extending the remit of the Youth Justice Board to deal with young adult offenders up to the age of 21 to see whether this pattern can be repeated?

Lord McNally: Like the age of criminal responsibility, this matter is kept under review. There are certainly indications that more holistic intervention by youth offending teams has led to a significant fall-off in youth offending, and there are lessons to be learnt from that. As always with these matters, the question is how much further up the age group one can carry interventions such as that without severe resource implications. However, my noble friend is right to draw attention to the 18 to 25 group, where a lot of criminality that lasts for a lifetime starts becoming embedded.

*****

Baroness Sherlock: My Lords, is the Minister aware that about a half of those convicted for riot-related offences, certainly at the time the Riots Communities and Victims Panel published its report, were 18 to 24 year-olds? If he does not feel that he can give additional resources at the moment to enable the Youth Justice Board to take over, how else can he address the problems of that age group? After all, if we have another set of riots, that may be money well spent.

Lord McNally: What I can say is that there is a White Paper in the offing on these areas. It does not take a great deal of homework to identify that age group as perhaps the next best group on which to focus the intensity of care that has been shown in the youth justice system. If we could get anywhere near that success in the 18 to 25 group, we would have a real chance of cutting reoffending, which is the real problem in our prison population and in general levels of crime.

T2A is delighted to announce that Joyce Moseley OBE has agreed to become the new Chair of the Alliance.

On becoming Chair, Joyce said:

I think I let out a little yelp of delight when I opened [Barrow Cadbury Trust CEO] Sara Llewellin’s email asking if I would consider becoming the Chair of the T2A Alliance. It took me only moments to know that I would love to get back involved with T2A and the work it is doing to promote the needs of young adults. And what a privilege to be asked to take over from Anne Owers!

As Chief Executive at Catch22, I became involved with the development of T2A right at the beginning and I’m pleased the organisation continues to play a strong role. The T2A focus brings together two of my passions – youth offending and those neglected transitional years. What I admire about the Alliance work is the combination of practice, policy and research and the long term commitment to bringing about change.

Being a part of such a good programme of work and contributing my knowledge and experience is an honour. I look forward to meeting up again with Alliance members and working with you all in the future.

Joyce takes over from Dame Anne Owers, who was Chair of the Alliance from 2011-12 until her appointment as Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

About Joyce Moseley:

Joyce Moseley was, until July 2011, the Chief Executive of Catch22, the charity that works with young people, their families and communities who find themselves in difficult situations. With a £50M turnover, several large national programmes and an innovative partnerships with the private sector Catch22 is a significant provider of services to children in care, offenders and those out of education and employment.

Joyce was formerly a Director of Social Services having started her career as a social worker and community worker. As a member of the Youth Justice Board for six years she has always shown particular interest in young people.

She is a non executive director of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust which has a worldwide reputation for therapeutic approaches in mental health and offers both training and direct clinical work.

Joyce is the Chair of HCT Group, an award winning social enterprise providing public transport and related training services in the UK. All profits are re-invested in community transport schemes.

She is an Associate Advisor to G4S drawing on her experience in the fields of children’s social care and the criminal justice system.

She is also a Trustee of the Social Research Unit at Dartington, a charity dedicated to improving the health and development of children through evidence of the impact of their work on child outcomes. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Children’s Services.

Joyce received an OBE in 2007 for services to youth justice.

Today the Sentencing Council for England and Wales has published their annual survey on sentencing decisions in the Crown Court in 2011 today (http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/facts/crown-survey-results-2011.htm).

In the additional tables it breaks down the factors into specific offending categories.

Only a year after its introduction, ‘Age/lack of maturity where it affects the responsibility of the offender’ was the most commonly used mitigating factor for many offences (in up to 43% of cases). 

In addition, part of this document looked at the impact of aggravating and mitigating factors on sentence length and likelihood of receiving a custodial sentence. It shows that where offenders have four or more aggravating factors present but no mitigating factors, 99 per cent were sent to immediate custody. Of offenders with four or more mitigating factors but no aggravating factors, 13 per cent were sentenced to immediate custody. The report breaks this down into greater detail.

The new report by T2A, Pathways from Crime, details how maturity can be identified, addressed and managed by agencies throughout the criminal justice process.

Meanwhile, the Law Society Gazette has covered the T2A Pathway’s report that the Crown Prosecution Service take the maturity of a young adult into account in charging decision-making http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/call-maturity-young-adult039-test-prosecution

A new T2A report, Pathways from Crime, identifies ten points in the criminal justice process where a more rigorous and effective approach for young adults and young people in the transition to adulthood (16-24) can be delivered.

The audience for this report is broad, but it should be of particular interest to commissioners, practitioners and policy-makers who work to support the criminal justice process.

It is hoped that professionals at all levels and across multiple sectors will act on this body of evidence to adapt and adopt the T2A pathway to ensure that all areas deliver an effective approach for young adults throughout the criminal justice process.

Click here for a summary report, or click here for the full report.

T2A has also today launched the results of Catch 22’s summative evaluation of the three T2A pilot projects. The research tracked 34 young people over a six month period, measuring outcomes based around the offender pathways used by the National Offender Management Service, including reoffending, accommodation, employment, health and families. The results are very encouraging. The results of the evaluation include:

• Only three young people were reconvicted in this time
• Employment rates trebled
• NEET (not in education, employment or training) levels halved.

Foreword to the Pathways from Crime report, by Dame Anne Owers (T2A Alliance Chair from 2011-12):

In 2001, as I became Chief Inspector of Prisons, the Labour government entered its second term with a manifesto promise to extend to young adult offenders the focused and specialised attention that it had tried to provide for juveniles during its first term.

But this never happened. As a result, as I said in my last Annual Report as Chief Inspector of Prisons, they have remained ‘a neglected and under-resourced age group’: with a high likelihood of reoffending and a low level of specific and targeted investment. 

That is why the work of the T2A Alliance is so essential and so timely. Moving on from an analysis of the problem in ‘Lost in Transition’, the Barrow Cadbury Trust has worked with a range of practitioners, academics and policy groups to develop and support the kind of practical interventions that work. In three main pilot projects, multi-disciplinary teams have developed models of support relevant to different kinds of young adult offenders, from those who have committed more serious and persistent offences to those whose offending is less entrenched and less serious.

The T2A Alliance has also done valuable work on the concept of maturity, which is self-evidently not the same as biological age. Blowing out the candles on an 18th birthday cake does not magically transform anyone into a fully functioning and mature adult – even without the life disadvantages many young people in criminal justice have experienced. It is welcome that lack of maturity is now one of the mitigating factors that sentencers need to take account of: but it is only one factor, and sentencers may not have, or may not know of, relevant and effective sentencing options for this group.

The greatest frustration, for those working in the system as well as victims and young offenders, is that we know what does not work, but carry on doing it. Short prison sentences, followed by minimal post- release support, or conventional community sentences with limited engagement from an overworked probation service, cannot be expected to provide the support or challenge that young adults need, as they emerge from the protections – however limited – that they could rely on as juveniles.

There are no simple equations to turn round already damaged lives; and the latest work on desistance – why people stop offending – reminds us that this is a journey, not an event. But the provision of rigorous, individualised and focused support and mentoring – walking alongside young people as they try to change the narrative of their lives – does work. It has been described as a ‘probation plus’ model. Recent evaluations of the T2A pilots have shown that, of young adults tracked, many with prolific offending histories, only three had offended within six months, and none violently. Even allowing for the halo effect of small, enthusiastically led pilots, these are remarkable findings.

From those pilots, and the other research and policy work carried out over the last three years, T2A has developed a strong evidence base from which it has distilled ten Pathways from Crime. They are set out in this report, and provide a road-map for politicians, policy-makers and practitioners. They do not require legislative change, but they do require a change of approach and focus. That is an investment well worth making. This is not just an age-group with high levels of recidivism, but one where there is also the greatest opportunity to divert someone from a criminal career: studies have shown that 18 is also the peak age for desistance from crime. There is much good practice here, which if replicated and reinforced would significantly benefit victims and potential victims, young adult offenders themselves, and wider society.

See www.t2a.org.uk/pathway for more information.

The Riots Communities and Victims Panel’s final report, published today on http://riotspanel.independent.gov.uk/, contains a specific section on young adults and transitions (pp 90-91), and makes two concrete recommendations based on T2A evidence, citing T2A’s submission, research and projects.

 
The Birmingham T2A project’s youth to adult transfer process is highlighted as best practice, and the following recommendation is made:

Conservative MP, Paul  Maynard, and Labour Shadow Justice Minister, Andy Slaughter, speak about young adults, the German model, and maturity, in a House of Commons debate on Transparency and Consistency of Sentencing, at which Dominic Grieve and Ken Clarke were present.

Paul Maynard (Conservative, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys):

Despite the fall in child custody, one in 10 prisoners are still in the 18 to 20 age group. Admittedly, this has spiked because of the riots, quite correctly in my view. However, the independent panel that looked into the riots identified the lack of support for young people moving from the youth justice system to the adult justice system as a contributory factor to the occurrence of the riots, which is worth bearing in mind. The Barrow Cadbury Trust found that almost half of those in the 18 to 20 age group were in local authority residential care and 40% had suffered some sort of domestic violence. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has stated in a Centre for Social Justice report that

“increasing penalties for offenders will do little to stop the next generation of prisoners and unlock the cycle of deprivation which so many young people are trapped in, unless it is accompanied by an attempt to tackle the underlying drivers of crime.”

That is why I am concerned that any model that focuses simply on imprisonment and increasing the number of prisoners will not solve the wider problem we face.

We all age physically at different speeds, but we also age emotionally at different speeds. The human brain is not mature until the mid-20s—I suspect that for certain Members it might be much older, but I do not dare to speculate. It is worth looking at the model used in Germany, where those in the 18 to 21 age group are assessed for maturity. If the individual has a communication delay or learning disabilities, for example, there is the option that they will be disposed of through the youth justice process. That has been shown to work well in solving individual problems.

It is also important that our political rhetoric in the Chamber, on both sides, is mature when we discuss criminal justice. The Prison Reform Trust—I declare an interest as a trustee—recently published a report examining the reasons for the decline in child imprisonment. It found that politicians had played no role in that at all. Indeed, the best it could say about us was that we did not impede the process. I welcome the fact that the Government and others are now rejecting the easy, knee-jerk options. The Mayor’s strategy on youth crime, for example, was notably mature and robust in how it sought to tackle the issue. Similarly, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill has made great strides in the right direction, although I am sure that we would want to see some of them move more quickly. I commend the Sentencing Council for the judicious work it has done so far, and I congratulate the Opposition, empty though their Benches are, on having done the right thing in setting it up.

In response to Paul Maynard, Andy Slaughter, labour shadow justice minster, said:

The hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, who is now in his place, made a clear case, and one that should be heard in this House, for the reduction in prison numbers… I agreed absolutely when he talked about the need for effective community punishments and the previous Government’s record on reducing youth custody by 30%. He raised the subject of young adults and 18 to 24-year-olds in prison, which I know the Prison Reform Trust is currently looking at. It is a neglected area. However it is to be dealt with, whether it is through NOMS or whether it is through the Youth Justice Board, it is an area to which we urgently need to turn our attention.

A new report by the Prison Reform Trust has called for a more effective approach for young adult in the criminal justice system, drawing on research by the T2A Alliance.

The press release is below (from: http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Publications/vw/1/ItemID/151)

Locking up impressionable young men and women in adult jails with nothing to do risks creating a disaffected generation more likely to turn to crime, according to a new report by the Prison Reform Trust.

Three quarters of those convicted of riot offences are under 25. Eighteen to twenty-five year-olds make up one in ten of the population as a whole, but they account for a third of those sent to prison each year and a third of the total social and economic cost of crime. Nearly two thirds of young people released from custody in the first quarter of 2008 reoffended within a year.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick has raised concerns about young adults in prison, describing “young men sleeping through their sentences” in HMYOI Rochester and a lack of engagement in work, education and training across the young offender estate.

As part of its five year Out of Trouble programme supported by The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, the Prison Reform Trust’s today launches a report highlighting the reforms needed to reduce reoffending by young adults and their numbers in prison. The report calls on Ministers to build on their recent decision to reprieve the Youth Justice Board (YJB) by extending the same multi-agency approach to young adults as well as children. Currently the criminal justice system has a number of specific provisions for children and young people under 18 who get in trouble with the law, but older teenagers (18-20 year olds) are dealt with the same as mature adults.

Following an impressive drop in offending by children and a reduction in child imprisonment government must turn its attention to a neglected group of older teenagers who need considerable help to get out of trouble. The report highlights the effectiveness of a new Intensive Community Order piloted by Greater Manchester Probation Trust, which is proving successful in helping young adult offenders to break out of the vicious cycle of offending and imprisonment. A similar scheme has been trialled in West Yorkshire.

The cross-bench peer Lord Adobawale has tabled an amendment to the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which is currently in the House of Lords, to create an intensive community order for young adults based on the pilots. In addition, the former Chief Inspector of Prisons Lord Ramsbotham has tabled an amendment to the bill to make youth referral orders, which achieve the lowest reoffending rates of all juvenile court imposed sentence, available to young people aged 18 – 20.

Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said:

“We should be steering our young men and women into colleges of education and learning not colleges of crime. Locking up impressionable 18 and 19 year olds in adult jails with nothing to do is the surest way to create the hardened criminals of tomorrow. For many young people, intensive community approaches that nip offending behaviour in the bud are more effective than a prison sentence in helping them take responsibility and grow out of trouble.”

 

Director of the Out of Trouble campaign, Penelope Gibbs, called on Peers to back the reforms needed:

“Manchester Probation Trust’s innovative pilot scheme shows what can be achieved when young offenders are helped to turn their lives around. Ministers should ensure that other probation services follow where Manchester and West Yorkshire have led. Amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill should give courts the power to sentence young adult offenders to an Intensive Community Order.”

 

 

Click here to download a copy of the report.