John Drew CBE, the former Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board, said at a recent public lecture hosted by the University of Bedfordshire that we must learn from mistakes made in the past and continue to look at alternative options to the incarceration of children.

“Whenever governments cut back on prison expenditure, there is a trend that the number of children entering prisons is reduced,” said the social worker of 40 years who oversaw a halving of the rate of child imprisonment during his four year tenure at the Youth Justice Board, from 2009 to 2013.

“In the 1980s, as expenditure in the custody service was reduced – following all-time high numbers of children imprisoned in 1977 - the number of under 17s appearing in the Juvenile Court fell by 52 per cent, while the number of under 17s in custody fell from 7,700 to 1,900.”

The 1990s saw this figure nearly double, however, as attitudes towards crime changed and the death of Jamie Bulger put child imprisonment at the forefront of policy.

The trend continued throughout the early years of the Labour government after 1997. But from 2003 onwards a more child-focussed attitude began to change the government’s approach, and the seeds for the current reduction were sown. When the coalition government took over in 2010 and cut funding this trend developed further and imprisonment figures fell dramatically.

“We must look at the 1980s and learn from the experience. We need to use it to change behaviour, and not just see a reduction in child imprisonment solely from the perspective of funding cuts; it needs to be a part of government policy because they believe reducing child imprisonment is the right thing to do,” Professor Drew concluded.

Professor Drew, who has recently joined the University as a Visiting Professor, added that three debates at the moment are likely to have an impact on child imprisonment:

• The introduction of Secure Colleges, and the future role of Secure Training Centres and Secure Children’s Homes – both of which he said should be retained;
• Calls for a public enquiry into deaths of children in custody;
• The potential impact of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child, both in respect of urging restrictions on the imprisonment of children and also in terms of pressing for improved conditions for children in custody.

Throughout the lecture, Professor Drew insisted he was not against incarceration as a “last resort” for children in extreme cases, but he highlighted the issues with imprisonment – such as a high re-offending ratio, and the high number of child deaths.

A Q&A followed the lecture, where Professor Drew pointed out that we could reach a stage where further reductions in government expenditure on youth and children’s services could lead to rates of child imprisonment rising once again. But he observed it had not happened as yet and the connection between expenditure and imprisonment deserved further study.