§ 17. Mr. Fisherasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of young offenders, aged 15 to 16 years, discharged in 1980 were reconvicted within two years.
§ Mr. MellorThe most recent information available relates to young offenders discharged from detention centres and borstals in 1979. It shows a reconviction rate of about 72 per cent. for boys discharged from detention centres and of about 83 per cent. for boys discharged from borstals. The reconviction rate for girls was about 54 per cent.
§ Mr. FisherDoes the Minister agree that those appalling figures show that the Government's policy of punishment through sharp shocks has been a wholly discredited failure? What new money, new initiatives, new ideas and new determination will the Government bring forward to improve education and training facilities for youngsters?
§ Mr. MellorI suspect that the hon. Gentleman prepared his supplementary before he heard my answer. Since the dates to which the answer refers we have changed the system of borstal to young persons prisons. We have introduced a community service scheme for 16-year olds and we have made a number of changes to improve education facilities in prisons as a result of the prison building programme which this Government had the courage to introduce—unlike the previous Labour Government.
§ Mr. Simon HughesCan the Minister explain how the short, sharp shock administered to many life prisoners—one of whom, on the day before the Home Secretary's speech to the Conservative party conference, was moved from an open prison to a closed prison by Executive action—can be justified on any principle of justice, given that it is retrospective legislation by Executive act? It takes no account of the interests of many people who are due for parole and have been recommended for parole.
§ Mr. MellorFirst, that question has nothing to do with the question on the Order Paper. Secondly, the release of life sentence prisoners has always been a matter for the discretion of my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary. If the hon. Gentleman thinks that that is an easy task to discharge, he has not thought seriously about the problem.
Thirdly, the announcement that my right hon. and learned Friend made about life sentence prisoners was a material part of the increasing confidence in the criminal justice system that has taken place under this Government in recent months.
§ Mr. SquireIs my hon. Friend aware that I commend him on the recent announcement of the greater use of community service orders, which at least require those guilty of offences to pay something back to the community? Does not that system reduce the number of those taken into custody and to what has become a rather expensive finishing school for criminals?
§ Mr. MellorWe certainly wish to develop non-custodial alternatives where they are appropriate, but there are some young offenders who require, and will continue to receive, custodial sentences. We have to think not only of rehabilitation, but of containment, which is a problem when dealing with some young offenders.
§ Mr. BellWill the Minister of State revert to the answer that he gave to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Mr. Fisher)? Is it not a fact that the magistrates are sending more young offenders to youth custody centres than they ever sent to borstal?
§ Mr. MellorIt is too early to say what sort of trend will be established, but at present the hon. Gentleman is right. There has been a greater use of youth custody than might have been anticipated.