Young offenders holiday camp

[joeluke]

http://www.thesun.co....eens-luxury-home.html

Fully equiped gym, heated swimming pool, juice bar, computers, games consoles, sports hall

Is this a correctional centre for youngsters who have committed serious crimes?

.........or is it Butlins?

Being incarcerated for serious crimes should be a punishment and they should have access to none of these facilities, how can places like this be a deterrent when they have things that many law abiding youngsters can't afford to have?

[ummmm]

Sqad - they might be streetwise but many of them are NOT IT competent. Some of them can barely read and write...

[jackthehat]

He has stopped short of killing any more small boys..........so perhaps we ought to claim that as a 'partial-success'?

[joeluke]

'Put them in a cell then with a few books, pens and paper and let them march around in a prison yard and do keep fit exercises.'

Can't see owt wrong with that

[jackthehat]

Why doesn't ^that surprise me?

[Sqad]

Lofty...I feel that you have missed my point......freedom to do whatever they want ISN't precluded in these institutions....drugs are available.TV. Internet ect ect......these are the things that need removing.

[joeluke]

^ pixi rains on the do-gooders parade

[The-HouseHusband]

So criminals need all this but the average person on the street can only have it if they can afford it (or get one of the criminals to rob it off of another law abiding citizen).

You dont need playstations and the like for education, local education authorities can not afford the same sort of equipment but seem to do a better job in bringing law abiding citizens into the world!!

[Sqad]

pixi....your personal experience is invaluable.

[NOX]

With offenders- particularly young offenders, the emphasis has to be on rehabilitation not just punishment because that just makes you an angrier, more determined better criminal. These children do often come from the most deprived homes where the adults around them have massive issues and a chaotic lifestyle, set appalling examples and have entirely failed in parenting them- often because that happened to them as well. If you want to break the cycle of offending, drink and drug addiction and bad parenting which leads to a new generation of the same type of person then you need social intervention to stop poverty, lack of education and give people a chance to accomplish what they want to do in a decent law abiding manner. Schools need also to stop placing the emphasis on achievment and start placing the emphasis on being a nice person- but ultimately if you lock a kid up who has offended and add to it's misery by simply repeatedly punishing it how can you ever expect a change in behaviour because you have just reinforced cruelty to them?
Prison is a destroying experience which sets you up to return to it, it's not an answer to anytihg for all but the most serious of offenders.
Padraig- Prisoner three times in grand total, once for 6 months, once for 18 months and once for 7 years.

[LoftyLottie]

Thanks NOX, for your input and honesty.

[LoftyLottie]

And pixi too of course.

No system is going to work for everybody - but these children need a chance. They have all their lives in front of them.

[jackthehat]

and NOX^ eloquently piddles on your chips, joeluke.

[kerriesmum]

I have zero knowledge on young offenders institutions, what age range are we talking about ?.

[joeluke]

Not really jack, if prison is such a destroying experience then people would only want to experience it once

[Sqad]

Nox

.<<<< Schools need also to stop placing the emphasis on achievment and start placing the emphasis on being a nice person->>>

I think by "nice person" you mean "law abiding".....forgive me if i am wrong.
In most cases this has been predetermined by the attitude of the parents and there is little that the schools can do to reverse this attitude.

Unfortunately...."achievement".. is the standards on which we assess the schools (rightly or wrongly) and prepares them for entering and succeeding in the outside world with all the problems that may be encountered and i cannot think of a better method of judging the success of a school.

[milly143]

Pixi's example is a good one, however it is just one. I'll assume that Pixi did not re-offend and return to prison but that could also be put down to the fact she realised one stupid mistake was one too many.

It would be interesting to see how many people who Pixi shared that prison with, ended up back in there.

[LoftyLottie]

18-20 apparently - so I was wrong, not children. I thought 16-20. But they are still very young.