Imprisoning kids...
Why do we punish when we could help?
Image © Jonny Matthew 2024 (Made with/with the help of DALL-E)
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Introduction
I’ve just heard the news about the sentencing of the two 13 year boys who killed Shawn Seesahai (19).
Before I say any more, I want to make it clear how my heart goes out to his family - their loss and sense of despair I can only imagine.
I have a son who is a young adult and the very thought of losing him turns me cold inside - never mind losing him in such a futile, crass and meaningless way.
What follows is not for one minute intended to offend or take away from the desperate tragedy of Shawn’s death - not one iota.
Punishment won’t work
In 1993, when two 11 year olds killed James Bulger, the youth justice system in the UK changed inexorably.
That event helped precipitate changes which are still being unpicked and worked through today. In my view, most of those changes were not for the good - at least not for children.
Others may take a different view, of course. The standard response from Jo Public in such cases is to applaud the imprisoning of ‘murderers’ and to follow up the clapping with shouts of, ‘throw away the key!’
I beg to differ.
It’s not that I don’t understand what lies behind the invective, the anger or the clamour for somebody to do something. I do; I’m human like anybody else.
But what do we think will be achieved by imprisoning children?
Getting them off the streets - well, certainly; there is that.
Understanding why the crime happened in the first place? Nope.
Rehabilitation? Nope.
Preventing future offences? Ha - not even close.
So what then?
Justice!
Really though?
Do we honestly think taking away half a kid’s childhood, labelling him or her an ‘offender’ (let alone a ‘murderer’) and sticking them behind a big fence with a load of others will fix anything?
It won’t.
I’ve worked in youth justice for 30+ years, written dozens of court reports, supervised community sentences, written offending behaviour programmes, helped to manage a secure unit for children (think ‘prison’), contributed to criminological research and worked in forensic mental health… for years.
So, while I know locking these kids away might keep them off the streets for a while, I also know it won’t do much at all by way of addressing crime. In all likelihood, it will cement their view of the world - that when kids grow up in horror, develop in violence and go on to repeat what they’ve learned, nobody cares!
Sure some people will do good. Social workers will be nice. Police officers will be humane. Prison staff will befriend and look after them. But who’s going to fix the real problem?
Who’s going to work with them to explore, unpick and help them understand the years of abuse, neglect and trauma; and who’s going to help them process it, learn new ways of being and teach them to value others, empathise and be half-decent people?
Prison can’t do that.
So who benefits? Mr & Mrs Daily Mail reader might feel good for a minute or two, believing that the system ‘got them’ and did something about it. Justice was done. ‘Throw away the key!’
Justice? Really?
Justice for whom, though?
For Shawn and his family? Yes, of course. No-one would blame them for wanting to see their son’s killers punished. I certainly don’t and completely understand their frustration that the sentences weren’t longer.
The long term reality for everyone else, though, is that these kids will not be changed for the better by the system while they’re locked away from the world. Indeed, tragically, they may become ever more entrenched in an offending identity, earning their criminal stripes along the way, such that they gift the world with even more victims later on.
So for society there’s no real justice here. They, and we, live to suffer again - just a bit later on.
What really happened today…
Here’s what happened: two 13 year old children were sent to custody for 8.5 years - minimum.
One of these ‘killers’ was described by the BBC reporter who was in court as, ‘vulnerable.’
But what does this mean?
Well, for this particular 13 year old it means he’s been exploited, groomed, trafficked, subject to modern slavery, suffered violence in the home since birth and been known to social services his whole life.
Please read that last sentence again.
…exploited, groomed, trafficked, subject to modern slavery, suffered violence in the home since birth and been known to social services his whole life.
He’s known little else.
And yet, our solution to this is to put this child in prison for 8.5 years?
Good grief!
Let’s do better…
We know how to help vulnerable kids, but instead we wax lyrical about, ‘why it is that kids carry knives’ & ‘what might explain the rise of violence on our streets?’
It's not rocket science:
They carry knives because they feel unsafe (not a polite middle class 'a bit' unsafe, but properly in fear for their lives unsafe).
They USE knives because they're raised in violence so it's not new to them - they know how it goes, they know what happens to the one who doesn't fight back & they know-perhaps most worrying of all-that no-one really cares!
Oh, they care when a kid ‘trained’ in violence their whole life goes on to be violent - then they care, but not about the child, or why they did what they did. They don’t care about that. They care about feeling satisfied that this abused child ‘got their comeuppance.’ And they want to throw away the key.
This kind of response, from individuals and from the system, just reinforces all that. ‘You might be a vulnerable kid who’s been abused and neglected since day one, but we’re going to lock you away anyway.
We know that the criminal justice system has a lousy record when it comes to rehabilitation; and this despite the efforts of youth justice workers, probation, police, youth workers, social workers, custody staff, courts and others - most of whom work tirelessly to wring some semblance of ‘justice’ for children, from a system configured mainly to punish.
Final thoughts
This was a rant. I wrote it quickly in a haze of pissedoffness. It’s clearly not my best work.
Sorry about that.
And I know that not every kid who does a terrible thing like killing Shawn Seesahai has had an obviously terrible life. But in my experience they nearly all have.
Our criminal justice system needs root and branch reform if it’s really going to be a just justice system - not least for children. The Bulger case helped make it OK to name, shame, imprison and vilify children who kill. Those 11 year olds were tried in an adult court, named and shamed publicly and, as a result, will be forever axiomatic of the mythic ‘killer child.’
I really hope the Shawn Seesahai case jolts us from our malaise and helps us change our minds about that and try, finally, to help these kids instead.
The only thing worse than punishing abused children when they live reactively out of their abuse, is knowing how to help them but not doing it.
That’s what happened today. And it’s days like today that make me ashamed to be British… #YJ #YJB #MOJ
See you in the next one.
More information:
BBC WEB ARTICLE: Boys who killed with machete aged 12 are detained (link)
UPCOMING BLOG: Youth Justice - A Way Forward (link)
WEBPAGE: ‘Youth Justice Blueprint’ for Wales (link)
REPORT: Alliance for Youth Justice (on which the above upcoming post is based) - (link)
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©️ Jonny Matthew 2024
So we're conducting an experiment where society endlessly adjusts to those with maladaptive traits? Allowing ever more extreme variants of these traits to proliferate through reproduction?
The primary role of prison isn't punishment, it's a deterrent.