Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader and justice spokesperson Elfyn Llwyd MP has today warned that the UK Government is in danger of abandoning young people to a vicious circle of criminal behaviour.
Mr Llwyd was responding to today’s publication of figures by the National Audit Office (NAO), which show that youth offending cost the economy £11billion in 2009.
The report gives the damning verdict that young offenders who receive more serious community or custodial sentences remain as likely to re-offend as they were ten years ago, when the youth justice system was first introduced in Wales and England.
Mr Llwyd has argued that the UK Government has a duty to uphold its contract of trust with young people.
Mr Llwyd said that a radical overhaul of the criminal justice was needed and repeated Plaid’s calls to devolve youth justice to the Welsh Assembly Government.
Mr Llwyd said:
“This week of all weeks, it has been made clear that the UK Government is falling far short of its duty towards young people.
“Today’s figures suggest that we are still failing the most challenging youth offenders – the number of young offenders who re-offend after committing more serious crimes has gone up since 2000.
“Labour clearly failed to tackle this while in government and now we need to question why the ConDem coalition is not putting more effort into young people – whatever their circumstances.
“The impact of savage cuts to both the justice and higher education budgets will only make matters worse – at precisely the time when more needs to be invested in these departments.
“Resources need to be redirected towards those young offenders most at risk so that we can intervene at an early stage and tackle the social problems leading to this worrying trend.
“Taking into account the fact that financial hardship often leads to an increase in crime rates, I fear more civil disobedience could be brought on.
“Now is the time to change this highly unsettling series of events.
“Justice is best served at a local level, and in order to combat these failures, Plaid Cymru firmly believes it is high time justice powers were devolved to the Welsh Assembly Government.”
