Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Judd, with his usual prescience, has raised this threshold to 21. It brings to mind the fact that, in the custodial system as it is, there are people aged under 18 in the hands of the Prison Service, and then those aged 18 to 21 of whom there many more, but they are marginalised. They are marginalised because nobody is responsible for looking after them; they are not regarded as adults, they are not regarded as children and nothing is done for them. That group probably needs our help more than any other which we are not helping. Its members are on the threshold of adulthood; it is the last chance saloon, if you like. Therefore, while we are dealing with children and all the special things that happen, we ought to bear in mind that some establishments known as ““split sites”” have both groups. If you visit them, you will find that the younger group has facilities like education and work, and the 18-21 year-olds have not because the facilities have been milked to provide them for the juveniles for whom the Prison Service is under contract from the Youth Justice Board. It has been said that this group of young offenders should go up to the age of 25. That is another debate and another aspect that needs to be considered, but bearing in mind that, as I shall be raising in another amendment, it is now possible for people to remain in care until the age of 21 and remembering the immaturity of some of these people who need all the help that they can get, it is right that the restrictions on custody that the noble Baroness has so rightly raised should apply to the age range raised by the noble Lord, Lord Judd.