'A stain on national life': why are we locking up so many children?

Britain’s young offender institutions are places of misery and violence, and often more dangerous than adult prisons. Indeed, the evidence is clear that criminalising children just causes more crime. By Chris Daw

Gethin Jones is a man of wisdom, insight and compassion. He has an insider’s bitter understanding of life in care, youth justice, drug addiction and prison. In many ways, his story is one of all that is wrong with the criminal justice system when it turns its firepower on the young.

I spoke to Gethin late last year as I approached my 50th birthday. He and I are about the same age. In terms of our life journeys, that is where the similarities largely end. Now smartly dressed, balding, but looking every inch the successful professional that he is today, Gethin’s start in life could not have been more different.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/39oZqp0