§ Mrs. BrookeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to end and to reduce imprisonment of juveniles. [75345]
§ Hilary BennThe Government strongly believe that custody for juveniles should very much be a last resort, and we have provided the courts with a wide range of community-based penalties which are specifically targeted at young people. Sadly, however, we recognise that there is a small minority of young people—just 4 per cent. of those juveniles dealt with by police and courts each year—whose offending is so serious or so persistent, that custody may be the only immediate answer. In those cases, we must ensure that such a sentence is as constructive an experience for them as possible, and to this end we have introduced the new Detention and Training Order for juveniles and improved the custodial regimes with supervision and support after release.