Visitors to this website will be familiar with the case of Jeremiah Duggan.
Please SIGN the  JUSTICE FOR JEREMIAH PETITION
It will be PRESENTED to the Prime Minister Mr.  GORDON BROWN ON 3rd April 2008 together with a letter appealing for his intervention on behalf of the campaign. You can reach the Petition web site either
Direct via  http://www.petitionthem.com/?sect=detail&pet=4181
or via the Justice for Jeremiah Web site at   http://justiceforjeremiah.com

The campaign group “children aren’t criminals”, issued a statement today, following the announcement by  Ed Balls, the education minister of a Baby Asbo scheme.  “That will inevitably demonise and scapegoat very young children.”

Stephen Jakobi, convener of the umbrella group said “It would appear that the scheme will target up to a thousand children as young as 10 by methods that will inevitably raise the numbers of very young children in custody for non violent offences when we already have the worst record in Europe.

In 1992 only 100 children under I5 were sentenced to penal custody and  sentences were all awarded under the ‘grave crimes’ provision (Section 53 of the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act) for children who had committed serious offences such as robbery or violent offences. In 2005 - 2006, 824 children under 15 were incarcerated but only 48 of these came into the same grave crimes sentencing framework. How many more will be incarcerated under the new Scheme ?.

Ladling out good behaviour contracts on complaints from teachers and neighbours and targeting the very young children, as opposed to their backgrounds, in attempting to prevent a life of crime is doomed to failure.

A disturbed and troubled child causing disruption of this sort has almost inevitably background problems that children of this age cannot possibly handle

In 2005 the British Institute for Brain Injured Children made a national ASBO survey. Youth Offending Teams confirmed that 37% of ASBOs go to mentally impaired youngsters.Problems included : clinical depression, autism, psychosis, suicidal tendencies,personality disorders learning disabilites and ADHD.  Even more remarkable according to the government’s own evaluation reports ( e.g. Housing Research Summary No. 230 ; DfCLG) in the ‘ASB Intensive Family Support’ (Sin Bin) projects introduced to supplement ASBOs,80% of the families targeted had serious mental health and learning disability problems.60% were recognised as victims of ASB.Project managers described many families as ‘easily scapegoated’ in neighbour disputes..

Intensive work with the children concerned is good, but can be only part of the story.  What is going to happen to the children’s problems created by others that give rise to the behaviour?

The government is fully aware that any young child inducted into the criminal justice system is probably destined to become an adult professional criminal.

What in fact, we are witnessing is a piece of “ad hocery” continuing  the government recklessness in demonising and criminalising the very young.”

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