Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I, too, thank the Minister for bringing forward the amendment, but, like other noble Lords, I have some reservations about its wording. I was interested to hear him mention the aim of the youth justice system. As a former soldier, I was brought up to believe that an aim must be absolutely clear and unequivocal, and give clear direction to all those who have to follow it. Unfortunately, the aim here is not clear, because it confuses preventing ““offending”” with preventing ““reoffending””, which are not the same thing. Given that the Act from which the provision was taken dates from 1998 reminded me of the anticipation with which we awaited the arrival of this Government following the statement of Mr Blair that he was going to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. Appreciating that the causes of crime were in society, we hoped that that would mean a bringing of society into the resolution of the causes and therefore the prevention of crime. Soon after that, the new Government realised that the criminal justice system—the police, the courts, prisons and probation—were in a mess; they were not a united system; they represented rather more four warring tribes competing with other for ever-diminishing resources rather than realising that their efforts, if aggregated, could produce a better solution that was much more geared to protecting the public than if they continued separately. So, very wisely, the Government gave them a uniting aim, which was to protect the public by preventing crime. I have no argument with this sentiment, but the word ““prevent”” is wrong in this context, because the criminal justice system does not click in until after a crime has been committed. That is not to say that there are not certain activities of the police which are geared towards crime prevention, but the criminal justice system, the investigation of the crime by the police, the sentencing and then the administration of the sentence by the prison and probation services are all about preventing reoffending, which is not the same thing at all. I notice that this aim for the youth justice system was given to it at exactly the same time. All that one has done is cross out the word ““criminal justice system”” and put ““youth justice system”” and given it the same aim: preventing reoffending. At the same time, I was looking at the aim of the Prison Service, which is, "““to keep securely those committed by the courts, to treat them with humanity and to help them to lead useful and law-abiding lives"." Here my background as a soldier came into play and I realised that there was not one aim in that but three, and you cannot have three aims. Security is put first, which is why security seems to run everything. In fact, if we are talking about preventing reoffending, helping people to live useful and law-abiding lives should come first, with the qualification that they must not be allowed to escape and must be treated with humanity. My noble friend Lady Stern and the noble Lord, Lord Judd, made the point that what is missing from that aim is that it should be in the interests of the child. Saying that the aim of the youth justice system is to prevent offending, which it is not, is missing that the aim of the system is to help young people to live useful and law-abiding lives and to rehabilitate them using methods that are appropriate to them as children. I hoped that, after listening to us, the general spirit of making children count would have been reflected in revised aims and principles for the youth justice system that would be put in the Bill.