How do we keep young people out of prison?

This is the 1 Million Pound question. The fact are: Youth crime on the rise, overcrowded prisons and in a devastating recession we really have other problems than that. Really? Surveys have shown that once a young person is imprisoned it finds it hard to live a normal life later.

So the question is what alternatives are there to prison. The PRT have suggested a number of measures such as a one year review of custodial sentences, to reduce the number of children remanded in custody, more power for local authorities regarding child detention.

We imprison three times as many young people as Germany

In October 2007 there were over 9,500 people bewteen 18 and 20 in prison in England and Wales. Germany with a population of 82m sent only 3,400. That is almost three times as many.

Nearly half of first time offenders are young adults.