The Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance will be holding events at all of the party conferences in September and October this year. The events are in the Youth Zone, inside the secure areas at Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative conference. The events are open to all (a conference pass is required to enter the secure areas).

The full details are as follows:

Liberal Democrats:

Title: ‘Delivering Effective Integrated Local Services for Young Adults in the Criminal Justice System’

Date: Monday 19^th September 2011, 12.30-2.00pm, Youth Zone (inside secure area), Birmingham ICC

Chair:

• Debbie Pippard, Head of Programmes, Barrow Cadbury Trust

Speakers:

• Lord Dholakia, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords; President, Nacro
• Clive Martin, Director, Clinks
• Penelope Gibbs, Director of the Out of Trouble Campaign, Prison Reform Trust
• Mike Maiden, Chief Executive, Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust

Refreshments: Yes

Open to all

Labour:

Title: ‘Growing out of Crime’: Effective Responses to Young Adults in the Criminal Justice System

Date: Tuesday 27^th September 2011, 10.30-12.00pm, Youth Zone (inside secure area), Liverpool ACC

Chair:

• Ruth Cadbury, Chair of the Barrow Cadbury Trust

Speakers:

• Helen Goodman, Shadow Minister for Justice
• Frances Crook, Director, Howard League for Penal Reform
• Clive Martin, Director, Clinks
• Vicki Helyar-Cardwell, Director, Criminal Justice Alliance
• Anton Shelupanov, Programme Leader, The Young Foundation

Conservatives:

Title: ‘Delivering Effective Integrated Local Services for Young Adults in the Criminal Justice System’

Date: Monday 3^rd October 2011, 12.30-2.00pm

Venue: Manchester Central, Room 6 Zone (inside secure area), Manchester Central

Chair:

• Sara Llewellin, Chief Executive, Barrow Cadbury Trust

Speakers:

• Rt. Hon. Crispin Blunt MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice
• Clive Martin, Director of Clinks
• Rob Smith, Chief Executive of YSS (social exclusion charity, delivering the T2A pilot in Worcestershire)
• Paul Pandolfo, Business Manager (Intensive Alternatives to Custody service for 18-25 year olds), Greater Manchester Probation Trust

Refreshments provided

Open to all

For further details, please contact Max Rutherford at the Barrow Cadbury Trust [email protected]

The riots that took place across the UK have given rise to intense scrutiny and reflection on why it happened and how to prevent it happening again. Some of those involved committed violent and dangerous offences against others and local properties, undertaking premeditated burglary and theft. These actions cannot be condoned and deserve proportionate punishment.

It is also becoming clear that a significant number of those involved were not in this category. Many of the recent sentences that have been given and, in some cases subsequently appealed, have been grossly disproportionate. It has been widely reported that a majority of those involved were young people, and two thirds were under 25. The Transition to Adulthood Alliance, which works to promote a more effective response for young adults in the criminal justice system, includes organisations who work at the sharp edge in the areas most directly affected by the riots, who have been able to get first-hand exposure to the views of young people about why some of their peers got involved.

In many cases, immaturity and a deficit of self-control, was at the heart of it. Young people, caught up in the crowd and lacking the maturity to refrain from being part of the moment, ended up committing crimes of sheer thoughtlessness, whether stealing a bottle of water or posting reckless messages on social media, unaware of the seriousness or the consequences of their actions.

These young people, many of whom have no previous criminal record and were unknown to the police prior to these events, are now in custodial remand and facing sentences in prison. The T2A Alliance believes that, while the young people must face the consequences of their actions, this will be the wrong approach in almost all cases. T2A has campaigned since 2008 for a more effective approach to young people who commit crime during early adulthood. Working on the frontline, we know what works: responses to young adult crime must be proportionate and carefully tailored to the individual. The current use of custodial remand and short prison sentences is neither. For these young people and the communities they live in, the current reaction will only make things worse.

After the dust settles and sentences following the riots have been handed out, there will be potentially thousands more young people in prison. When their time in prison is through, all will leave prison, but few will be able to resettle into society. Many will have nowhere stable to live and most will be without a sustainable means to earn money. As this week’s NEET statistics show, they will join almost one million 18-24 year olds not in education, employment or training. It’s little wonder that most young adults leaving custody reoffend within a year.

T2A’s work on the ground, at the T2A projects, demonstrates the alternative – working alongside the criminal justice process and supporting young people by securing accommodation, training and long term prospects of earning a living, and addressing their thinking and emotional capabilities. Two of the T2A projects operate in areas that were directly affected by the riots. One, run by the St Giles Trust in Croydon, supports young people leaving prison by providing peer mentors, all of whom are ex offenders themselves and know from their own lives the challenging journey that young adults are travelling. In Birmingham, the probation service is pioneering new approaches to managing the transition of young people from the youth to adult justice systems, and working with the courts to provide a real alternative to custody. In West Mercia, YSS provides tailored support for mental health issues, substance abuse, accommodation and debt problems.

All of the T2A projects share a unifying factor: to support young adults to have a future that they see value in protecting. According to the formative evaluation of the T2A projects by Oxford University, three in four young adults engaged with T2A were known or believed to be ‘going straight’ – a major achievement compared to the current national reconviction rates. The interventions pioneered by the T2A aren’t about what works politically but what works in reality – and this is the better, and tougher, alternative.

T2A Alliance member, the Criminal Justice Alliance, has published a new report for T2A on effective sentencing of young adults.

In June 2011, the Government published the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, following the publication of a green paper on criminal justice reform, Breaking the Cycle, in December 2010.

While elements of the Bill are welcome, such as proposals to reduce the use of remand, it is disappointing that no specific reference is made to the distinct needs of young adults in the criminal justice system.

This is a missed opportunity. The Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance, which identifies and promotes more effective ways of working with young adults in the criminal justice system, has argued that the sentencing of young adults should take into account the maturity of the offender, rather than just their chronological age. The Bill could have been used, alongside the recent and welcome inclusion of lack of maturity as a mitigating factor in sentencing guidelines, to solidify this change.

The briefing sets out the current situation with regards to the sentencing of young adults, examines the case for considering maturity as part of the sentencing process and discusses what the benefits of this approach would be. It then considers how a new approach to sentencing young adults could be implemented in practice, and makes the following recommendations for change.

Recommendation 1

A version of the German Sentencing Model for young adults, which enables young adults aged 18-20 to be sentenced under juvenile law where appropriate, should be piloted in England and Wales.

Recommendation 2

Lack of maturity should be seen as a factor reflecting reduced culpability and a factor reflecting personal mitigation in the development of sentencing guidelines.

Recommendation 3

Sentencers should receive comprehensive training on understanding maturity, and the impact of lack of maturity, to better inform their sentencing decisions.

Recommendation 4

Service providers should work with the courts and probation to engage with sentencers and make them aware of any young adult-specific provision that is available in their area, and sentencers should understand its importance.

Recommendation 5

Young adult-specific interventions and services need to be made available in custody and in the community, and strong links made with the courts and probation.

The Transition to Adulthood is very sorry to report that Young People in Focus, who have been a key part of the T2A campaign since its inception, has taken the difficult decision to close. Young People in Focus will be a big loss to the sector and it is a great shame that young people are losing such powerful, thoughtful advocates.

YPiF contributed a number of important projects and publications for T2A, including ‘Young Adults Today’, a compendium of facts and figures about 18-25 year olds, and ‘Made to Measure’, a best practice guide to services working with young people in their transition to adulthood.

The YPiF website will remain open (http://www.studyofadolescence.org.uk/index.php), and its resources accessible. Their T2A publications can be downloaded from the publications pages of this website.

T2A and the Barrow Cadbury Trust thank YPiF staff for their substantial contributions, and wish them all the best in the future.

In response to the criminal justice reforms set out by the government today, Anne Owers, Chair of the Transition to Adulthood Alliance said:

“The T2A Alliance welcomes the Prime Minister’s remarks today that he wants to see more tough community sentences, instead of short prison sentences that are expensive and can be ineffective. We also welcome that he raised the fact that 30% of prisoners were once children in care of the state, and that this needs to be addressed.

“However, we are disappointed that the Bill contains no specific proposals to introduce systemic changes to improve the criminal justice system for young adults. 18-24 year olds account for just ten percent of the population, but they account for a third of those sentenced to prison each year, a third of the probation service case load and a third of the total economic and social costs of crime. Half re-offend within a year of release from prison, which clearly shows an urgent need for reform to support young people in their transition to adulthood to move away from crime.”