Government plans for Secure Colleges and why they must be re-examined

JUSTICE secretary Chris Grayling unveiled  plans this week for an £85 million secure young offender unit in Leicestershire, which will hold up to 320 inmates between the ages of 12 and 17. He said it would put “education at the heart of custody” and would move away from the traditional approach of “bars on windows” when it opens in 2017.

But the plans, which are part of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, also appears to support the use of physical force against children.

 Paola Uccellari, director of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, said: “Allowing prison officers to use force to make children behave themselves is dangerous and carries a risk of injury. The Government is putting children’s lives at risk by pushing ahead with its unlawful plans. It must listen to parliamentarians and remove these powers to use force from the Bill.”

It is, of course, unacceptable. Many of these young people will be without any caring adult to fight their cause. Yes, they will have committed crimes but they are still amongst the vulnerable in society. And what adult should be using force on a 12 year old?

There are horrendous crimes committed by juveniles but the Jon Venables and Robert Thompson’s (the 10 year old killers of toddler Jamie Bulger in Merseyside) are rare. The majority of the young people will be petty criminals, dragged up in care homes or by parents who won’t or can’t look after their children properly.

The bill says the new Secure College option will focus on education. It will also cut costs and this is the crux of it, isn’t it?

The Bill says: “By taking a wider cohort of young people aged 12-17, the Secure College will allow us to close expensive Secure Training Centre provision and a number of places in Secure Children Homes, as well as Youth Offender Institutions.”

The government says 69 per cent of young people leaving custody go on to reoffend within 12 months, and in Young Offender Institutions young people receive an average of only 12 hours contracted education a week.

The average cost of a place in custody is £100,000 per annum, but in the case of  Secure Training Centres (STCs) and Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs) it is  upwards of £170,000 and £210,000 a place each year respectively. Effectively the secure college option cuts the bill by more than half.

The new Secure Colleges will be put out to tender for private contractors.  There are currently around 1,350 young people in custody in England and Wales. Are we going to hand these young lives over to a private business, which will obviously be aiming to make money, and may not have a system of monitoring in place to judge whether the use of force was appropriate? In the light of all the historic child abuse cases coming to light from children’s homes dating back decades, is this not a step backwards?

Perhaps the reoffending rate could be brought down by introducing proper support for young people, not only when they leave these institutions but how about before the need arises or at least when the majority of these kids are in ‘general’ children’s homes.

This bill is expected to receive Royal Assent at the end of the year. There are many other parts to it, including sections on terrorism, extreme pornography, raising the upper age limit for jury service and dealing with low-level crimes by trial by a single magistrate rather than a bench.

But the secure college option, or at least the green light for violence against young inmates, must be re-examined.

Coming home and pastures new

So, it's been a flipping long time since I updated this blog. Mostly this is because I once again forgot the password (writing it on random bits of paper is not the answer).
This week has been the beginning of a new chapter in life for me. I have waved goodbye to the Dover Express after five years (sob) and say hello once more to the Isle of Thanet Gazette (yay) and also begin with a fresh patch on the Canterbury Times series (gulp).
It is exciting and terrifying in equal measure as I try to catch up with the Isle and learn about the city of Canterbury and the towns of Whitstable, Herne Bay and Faversham.
Luckily the cure for being terrified is a large glass of wine at night (slurp) and the reward for taking on a challenge is...errr...a large glass of wine (slurp slurp) so the tills will be ringing at certain shops over the coming weeks.
Bloke has been on hand to cook dinners this week and is even dipping his toe into the world of bread-making (yum). Boy, who is no longer a Boy, may or may not have an opinion on my return. Unfortunately he seems to be on a different time zone to me so I haven't had the chance to ask. Perhaps I will bump into him this weekend when he surfaces from the pit to raid the fridge.
My challenges for this weekend are to try and learn more about the Horsebridge Centre in Whitstable (I went there a few times many years ago when I was on loan to legendary former Times series ed John Nurden), read up on the Herne Bay Pier Trust, find out what treasures Faversham holds and discover more about the local music, arts and theatre scene in Canterbury.
A brush up on my who's who in Thanet is also required.

                                           CHEERS CHAPS: Toasting a new chapter

So, if you have suggestions of great places to explore, issues that need investigation or people who should be celebrated then get in touch by emailing kathy.bailes@KRNmedia.co.uk or kathy.bailes@virgin.net.

Elephant in the room (Just say cheese)

WHEN you come home to a cheese-covered carpet, no handle on the bathroom window and a bin that is over-flowing because no-one understands the concept of emptying it, is it time to move?
Or is it time to make everyone else move - or at least the 18-year-old responsible for the cheese?
I think there is something about being an 18-year-old male that must turn you into a noise-making, item-breaking, food-consuming whirlwind.
This would be fine except I have to pay for the items and the food and also clear up the mess left in my son's wake.
Foolishly I thought when he hit 18 that he would instantly start clearing up after himself, be earning a living and bunging me a few quid for his keep.
Thanks to Gordon Brown and now the Con-Lib lot dreams of gainful employment and extra housekeeping cash are dead in the water. There are no bloody jobs, especially if you have no experience (opening the age old question of how do you get the experience?)
Don't even bother saying apprenticeship, I don't know how many he's applied for but it is a miracle to even receive a reply never mind get an interview.
Mind you I can't blame "call me Dave" and "I can't believe my luck Nick" for the cheese on the carpet. This, apparently, was the result of cheesy bacon and pasta being cooked. Why the grater had to be aimed at the kitchen floor in some sort of sweeping motion I have no idea. I assume it isn't something contained in a Jamie Oliver book.

Why do you work?

There are lots of reasons why people go to work, they love their jobs, they want to be independent, sitting at home all day would bore the pants off them and, frankly, daytime TV is enough to drive anyone out the door.
But one reason everyone has in common is the wages. We all expect to get paid for our graft and then use that money for all the usual bills, shopping and, if we're lucky in these days of austerity, a small treat or two.
Which is why I really can't agree with the coalition government plan to make people on the dole work for their benefits.
Yes, I understand the argument of getting in a routine, not sponging off the state, giving back to society. That is all correct and commendable but if you are going to make someone work a 40 hour week then they should get paid. Surely that is one of the reasons we appreciate having a job? How are you to get in the routine if there is no reward/wage at the end? Will people work a 40 hour week and still not have enough cash at the end for decent shopping, or sandwiches for their lunch while they are doing this graft for free? Will they just be another form of community payback without actually committing a crime? And if there is enough work for a 40 hour week then why in God isn't it a job anyway?
I understand catching out those with jobs on the side and making spongers with 60 inch TVs and enough cash for a holiday each year get off their arse but how do you differentiate unless you actually go to the house of each claimant (surely a new 40 hour week job in itself?)
The fact is some people don't work because they're damn lazy and, yes, ways of putting sanctions in place need to be found. But another fact is people don't work because there are no bloody jobs, in case the PM and side-kick Cleggy have forgotten WE ARE IN A RECESSION. That means redundancies, bankruptcies, less growth = no jobs.
Perhaps time would be better spent on policies to create employment and then get people into work, proper paid work. I'm sure many of them won't need forcing at all.

Wood you believe it

Hurrah. The tree man has been and started work.
I can now see sky when I'm in my back garden and that's with just half the work done.

Instead of all the Special Branch twigging there was a problem jokes I'm just going to show you the photo of the amazing branch swinging chap scaling the HUGE tree by my house.
Who needs Tarzan when you've got the fabulous flying tree doctor, aye?

Dame Vera gets ink-corporated

I know it is oh so wrong but I could hardly contain my mirth when I heard the Dover People's Port launch - star guest Dame Vera Lynn - was double-booked with a tattooist convention.
Oh the giggles as I imagined our Vera getting ink on skin, a salty seadog design on her forearm perhaps? Of course there were other dignitaries, MP Chas Elphicke, district leader Paul Watkins and county council head honcho Paul Carter.
Did they sneak indoors (yes, the tattooists got inside the sea sport centre, Dame Vera and co got the outside balcony) for a warm up and find themselves perusing the artwork? An I love DHB tat for Charlie and perhaps Messers Watkins and Carter bared their chests for an Up the Blues design?

These are images which have kept me amused for a good couple of days. Is it so bad to  imagine  the head of Vera on the body of Popeye, chewing spinach, flexing tattoos and chortling the virtues of communitisation (read the Dover Express and you'll get a definition for that)?

If so then I am going straight to the burning furnace below because it is these thoughts which brightened up my Monday morning.

Google wins

Well, I have tried and tried but Google has decided I do not exist and it will, on no account, let me into Bailes Tales.
And so, drum roll please, we now have Bailes Tales 2.
Yes, it has taken me an incredibly long time to admit defeat and I still haven't added on all the widgets and dressing to make the new blog beautiful.
But, my pal Sue remarked, surely something has happened in my life since August? And so, just for Sue.....
Well,  the teen has been packing in as many parties as possible (three last night and he was still going strong at 7am today), Bloke has been trying to find a way to stop the gales coming in through the VW vents and freezing us solid on any drive longer than 20 minutes and I have finally declared victory in the battle of the trees.
Orbit Housing has agreed to chop down the huge trees which are on the border with my garden and have been blocking out the light for the last decade. Hurrah. As soon as they are gone we are having a garden bbq and I don't care if it is snowing.The bloody things have been the bane of my life. Every summer my garden is as dark as a cave, in the autumn the leaves block my drains and the tree nearest the house is so huge the roots have made my shed subside. The quote to get rid of them is some £1,300 but Orbit can breathe easy, at least I won't be charging for a new shed and repairs to my drain (unless I'm still waiting for them to come down next year).
On the down side this does now mean I will have to properly siort out my garden. Not being particularly green fingered I think this will involve a lot of pots and anything hardy enough to survive my neglect, I mean nurture.