Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, my reason for supporting the amendment is contained in two phrases in the proposed new clause, the first in subsection (1)(1) and the second in subsection (1)(2). In the first, the noble Lord, Lord Judd, includes the term ““under 21””, whereas we have mostly been talking about juveniles under 18. In the second, he talks about suitable accommodation. He has already given examples of totally unsuitable accommodation. I could bore your Lordships will endless descriptions of totally unsuitable accommodation, unsuitable treatment and unsuitable conditions for young offenders which I have seen round the country. In many cases, instead of designing suitable accommodation for young people, existing accommodation has been ““adapted—so-called””—for their use. I suppose that the classic example of total inappropriateness is the old convict penal establishment at Portland built at the beginning of the 19th century. It is about as unsuitable for young people as anywhere could be. Feltham, one of the few places that was purpose-built, was built to a design taken from America and suitable for a warm climate in California, not for the spaces beside Heathrow Airport. The other problem is that those between 18 and 21 are totally ignored throughout the penal system. A juvenile system under the Youth Justice Board looks after those under 18, and the prison system is designed for adults, but those between 18 and 21, called young offenders, fall between the two stools. No one is responsible for them within the prison system. They come under the guidance of area managers round the country who have responsibility for many different kinds of prisoners. In young offender institutions that contain both juveniles and young offenders, referred to as split sites, most of the facilities are given to the juveniles, because the Prison Service is under contract to the Youth Justice Board to provide for them, and the 18-to-21s, of whom there are many more, lose out. I suppose that one of the classic examples is Brinsford, which the noble Lord, Lord Judd, mentioned. We have an opportunity to do something about this. As I mentioned in Committee, one opportunity is a design called an academy—a term deliberately chosen in view of the academies being produced by the education department. It is run in the East End of London by an organisation called East Potential. This organisation is proposing a new site consisting of a custody centre—a foyer; a place that holds young homeless people; and a combination of work, education, drug treatment and other suitable facilities, all on site and designed to cater for the needs of a particular catchment area under the guidance of a local authority. It has the advantage that young people will not be taken too far from home. Once they get into the hands of the criminal justice system they will receive continuous mentoring, tutoring, teaching, training or whatever. Furthermore, the local area will be involved in looking after its own as opposed to the scourge of young people, particularly 18-to-21 year-olds, being sent all over the country to where there is a bed rather than to where they should be treated. I very much hope that, in the spirit in which the Minister has listened to and taken on board some of the points made so far on the Bill, he will take on board the need to do something about this group of young offenders to whom the noble Lord, Lord Judd, drew attention.