Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

Once again my noble friend has, as the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, said, illustrated his commitment, concern and compassion. However, I am not convinced. We seem to be locked in a madhouse. We are about to expand the number of prisons available with huge sums of money. We know that prisons are not achieving the objective of rehabilitation that they should. A time when we are committing so much of the taxpayer’s money to building new prisons is surely the time to steer away from the finding ourselves trapped by the provision that we have inherited. It is time to say that some of this money should go into purpose-built secure units where people can receive the kind of attention and support that they deserve. My noble friend has alluded to it but, if I have been disturbed by nothing else, I have been disturbed by the number of self-harming and suicide cases with which we have been confronted in this age group. Those are the extremes. We know that the situation is generally not helping the rehabilitation process. If we are to find new resources, it is time that we found them for methods that can tackle the task at hand.