Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I wholeheartedly support this amendment. It has been moved brilliantly by my noble friend Lady Stern, and all the contributions have underlined different aspects of why it is so crucial. I have been involved with children and courts for a considerable period of my life and know how effective some methods can be—and equally, how totally ineffective others can be. This Bill is an attempt—but a muddled attempt—to begin to make things better and to make it clearer that there could be a range of other activities and diversions. I suggest that what the Bill needs, above all, is an overriding, overarching principle. As the noble Baroness has just said, you need something through which you can interpret what you can do in the best interests of that child. The amendment mentions the best interests of the child and that "““the arrest and deprivation of liberty of a child shall be used only as a measure of last resort””." At a later stage, we shall look at the age threshold for a child to be sent to an adult prison. All that forms the background to what we are talking about. Community-based sentences are clearly the future. We have to admit that legislation passed by this Government has increased the number of people—women, children, men—who have been sent to prison. The system has become far more punitive than necessary and far harsher than the one that worked in the past. One understands the desire of all Governments to appear—and be—effective in preventing violent crime. Community-based sentences will help the Minister and the Government to achieve their aims, which are increasingly rehabilitative and aimed at trying to save so many children who, if worked with properly, can grow up and come out of offending, rather than fall into this horrendous reoffending pattern that we have seen, particularly with young offenders, where something like 96 per cent reoffend within a short period.