Youth (in)justice

Who would be a young person in Britain today? Criminalised, demonised and stigmatised. Human rights? Wot human rights!

An increased number of children and teenagers are living in poverty, increase in mental distress (prescribing anti-depressants to kids under 16 has quadrupled during the past decade), increase in self-harm and eating distresses…. and of course a punitive criminal justice system that locks kids up.

It is a grim picture for young people today under NL. And that’s what has been published today in a joint submission from the four children’s commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and the north of Ireland. The report will be presented to the UN inspectors today.

This submission includes a catalogue of infringements of the UN convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC), they include the use of physical restraint on children locked up in secure training centres and young offenders institutions (where some teenagers have ended up dead!), smacking in the home, neglect and failure in supporting children with learning disablities, one in three children living in relative poverty, inequalities within the education system, and the treatment of child asylum seekers such as the invasive and unlawful use of x-rays in determining their age.

In the 2002 report, the UN committee on the rights of the child set out 77 recommendations and according to the commissioners many have not been effectively implemented.

“Some things have actually got worse. We should cite developments in juvenile justice and public attitudes towards children as examples of this…We have continued to pursue the need for a ban on the physical punishment of children, challenging our governments’ claim that legislative changes have dealt with the matter”.

The continuing ASBOisation of “hoodie wearing” youth that plays to right-wing populism but what damage is inflicted on these young people? Doesn’t the anonymous hoodie wearer signify high levels of insecurities with pretend machismo and bravado..? How secure in yourself did you feel when you were 15 or 16?

NL has failed and failed and failed at every hurdle to support kids and teenagers in this society with the more vulnerable and powerless being treated the worst. Poverty, poor housing, lack of education are all basic things that NL could have improved immeasurably. But what kind of brutalised, soulless society has NL created that devalues, dehumanises and alienates working class young people?

Personally, I don’t think we are at the cross roads of barbarism and socialism…Sorry Rosa L. but we are half way down the road of barbarism…..

And with a very BIG possibility of a Tory government in 2 years time, roll on the boot camps for the young…

Backdating benefits: the poor lose out

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about proposals on reducing the time period for backdating certain benefits like Housing benefit, Pension Credit and Council Tax benefit, from 12 mths to 3 mths.

According to Work and Pensions Minister James Plaskitt, around £70m will be saved from slashing the time limits for claims. The savings will be channelled as part of a simplication package with measures that will improve processing claims for pensioners.

These measures will not simplify and improve the benefits system. There are genuine ways of simplifying the system (getting rid of the adult non-dependent deduction rule for HB/CTB) but that means paying out more when NL want to pay out less, this is no more than a cost cutting exercise, where the unemployed, pensioners and low income workers will be losing out.