APPENDIX 1
Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales
1. Following the evidence session on 3 December
2002, the Youth Justice Board is pleased to provide the Committee
with the following supplementary information.
STATISTICAL REPORT
ON RECONVICTIONS
2. In June 2002 the Home Office Research
Development and Statistics Directorate published a report "One
Year Juvenile Reconviction Rates". The study reports on the
reconviction rates for a cohort of juvenile offenders from July
2000 and was the first opportunity to analyse a national cohort
after the implementation of the youth justice reforms. The report
concludes that the cohort of juvenile offenders (excluding offenders
who were given a custodial sentence) had a reduction in reconviction
rates of 14.6% in relative terms against predicted rates after
one year. The report can be found at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/reconrates.pdf
and a copy has been made available to the Committee.
EVALUATION OF
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
PROJECTS IN
ESSEX
3. The evaluation study "Restorative
Justice Family Group Conference Project—Research Outcomes
and Lessons Learned" was published in October 2002. The evaluation
report provides information on the Essex Family Group Conference
Project with the aim of exploring the effectiveness of the conference
model as a form of restorative justice for dealing with youth
offending.
4. The report shows a high level of involvement
by victims or their representatives in the conferences. According
to the research, 91% of victims were happy with the outcome of
their Family Group Conference and were satisfied with the way
their conference had been handled, and nine out of ten victims
thought a conference should be offered to all victims. The impact
on the young person was felt by participants to be greatest when
the victim attended the conference. According to the research
the young people involved showed a significant improvement in
attitudes to offending after the Family Group Conference and reported
significant reduction in seriousness and persistence of offending.
There needs to be caution with the statistics on reconvictions,
primarily due to the relatively small sample size and the limited
time which had elapsed between some of the conferences and the
evaluation. However, the report shows that the reconviction rates
of young people who had a Family Group Conference was 31.6% for
the Year One sample, and 7.1% for the Year Two sample, as measured
at least three months and at most seventeen months after the Family
Group Conference has taken place. As with evaluation of other
restorative justice projects with young offenders to date, there
is no definitive evidence on reconviction rates, but there are
encouraging results. A copy of the report has been made available
to the Committee.
YOUTH INCLUSION
PROGRAMMES
5. A total of 70 Youth Inclusion Programmes,
funded by the Home Office and managed by the Youth Justice Board,
are operational in deprived areas in England and Wales. Areas
were invited to participate on the basis of their ranking in the
Government's Index of Local Deprivation. Youth Inclusion Projects
are expected to target their work on the 50 most at risk young
people aged 13-16 in their neighbourhood. Local Youth Offending
Teams, or their statutory or voluntary sector delivery agents,
manage the individual projects. On 21 October 2002 the Home Office
announced that £21 million had been allocated to continue
Youth Inclusion Programmes for the next three years. Listed below
are the areas in which the 70 projects operate:
1. Barking and Dagenham
2. Barrow in Furness
3. Birmingham Wyrley Birch
4. Birmingham Shard End
5. Birmingham Washwood
Heath
6. Birmingham
Kingstanding
7. Blackburn
8. Blackburn (Mill Hill)
9. Bolton
10. Bournemouth
11. Bradford Newlands
12. Bradford New Deal
13. Brent
14. Brighton and Hove
15. Bristol
16. Calderdale
17. Camden
18. Cardiff
19. Coventry
20. Derby
21. Doncaster
22. Easington
| 23. Gateshead
24. Greenwich
25. Hackney
26. Hammersmith and Fulham
27. Haringey
28. Hull
29. Islington
30. Kensington and Chelsea
31. Kirklees
32. Knowsley
33. Lambeth
34. Leeds (South)
35. Leeds (West)
36. Liverpool
37. Luton
38. Manchester
39. Merthyr Tydfil
40. Middlesbrough
41. Neath Port Talbot
42. Newcastle upon Tyne
43. Newham
44. Nottingham
45. Oldham
46. Peterborough
| 47. Plymouth
48. Portsmouth
49. Preston
50. Redcar
51. Rochdale
52. Rotherham
53. Salford
54. Sandwell
55. Sefton
56. Sheffield
57. Southampton
58. Southwark
59. South Tyneside
60. Stockton-on-Tees
61. Stoke-on-Trent
62. St Helens
63. Sunderland
64. Tameside
65. Walsall
66. Wandsworth
67. Wear Valley
68. Wirral
69. Wolverhampton
70. Wrexham
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THE NUMBER
OF YOUNG
PEOPLE IN
CUSTODY
6. The attached charts indicate the changes in the number
of young people held in the juvenile secure estate in recent years.
Chart One indicates the total under-18 population held in the
juvenile secure estate in each month between 1999 and 2002. Chart
Two indicates the total juvenile estate custodial population excluding
and including 18-year-olds each month since the end of 2000.
7. There was an error in the Board's original memorandum
to the Committee. In paragraph 2.19 of the paper it stated that
at the end of September 2002 there were 3,111 under 18-year-olds
held in the juvenile secure estate. As shown in the attached charts,
the correct figure for the end of September 2002 is slightly at
3,133. (The 3,111 figure is the total number of under 18-year-olds
held at the end of August this year.)
January 2003
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