Fourteen teenagers were involved in stupid behaviour in Burgess Hill. They have been sent to Lewes Prison in order “…to show where they can end up if their antisocial behaviour escalates”.
That sounds like a good idea to me.
In the last 30 years, we seem to have adopted the strategy in the UK that suggests that rules are fine if they don’t upset anyone, and discipline is fine so long as you don’t have to do it.
This seems to be stupid.
We all need rules, in order to define what is acceptable and what is not.
The large majority of young people learn those rules effectively because they are applied consistently and lovingly by their parents.
Of course, some young people may break those rules, and behave in ways that are stupid or just plain antisocial.
We have all disobeyed rules that were quite clear, and many of us who are no longer in the first full flush of youth remember that there were unpleasant consequences when our parents found out.
That word, ‘consequences’, seems to be missing in the vocabulary of the 21st century.
I have no wish to return to the days of barbaric punishments, but I would certainly like to bring back the idea of consequences for misbehaviour – they need to be unpleasant and memorable and, ideally, to make a significant impact on the recipient.
Different sanctions are effective with different people. That has always been the case. People make derisory comments about Asbos, and the 50% of recipients who carry on with their antisocial behaviour after receiving one.
It was the same with corporal punishment in schools: the historical records show quite clearly that it was the same boys who were regularly caned for poor behaviour.
The merit of corporal punishment was that it convinced the majority that they did not want to receive it, and so they behaved in an acceptable way.
Small children need to learn the rules, and understand that a consequence such as the ‘naughty chair’ will follow if the rules are broken. The earlier that a child learns about the consequences of inappropriate behaviour, the better for the child.
What do we do when young people, described as ‘older teens’, choose to be antisocial and to cause inconvenience and danger to other people?
Perhaps it should be an adult version of the ‘naughty chair’. Visiting a prison sounds good to me. Spending a night in a prison cell in one of our police stations might be even better.
Ideally this will be done by each youth, separately, so there is no chance of gaining moral courage from laughing with mates.
It will do antisocial youths no harm to see what it is like to be locked up in a cell. It will do them no harm to hear that a young prisoner may well be frightened of the others in his cell, and having no means of escape from their vicious comments and humiliating actions in the long hours of the night.
It will do them no harm to see and smell the realities of washing and using the toilet in front of others.
It will be valuable if these visitors to a prison actually hear from prisoners that trying to get a job is even more difficult for an ex-con than it is for the rest of the population.
This all sounds brutal and Victorian and vicious.
It is not meant to be. There are too many young people who, in their teens, come close to the slippery slope.
Instead of being given an unpleasant learning-experience that will convince them to mend their ways, some manage to press the self-destruct button and plummet to a life of crime. For many, the only solution after prison is more crime.
Fortunately there are some who learn from the experience of life behind bars, and vow never to go there again. Sadly, they are in the minority.
Plenty of young people are full of bravado about not being scared by prison: that is doubtless true for some of them. On the other hand, for the large majority of young people, however tough they may appear on the outside, the ugly realities of life in prison will be something that scares them.
It seems very sensible to me to present them with a few ugly facts and some unpleasant sights: if that gives them some private worries and a few sleepless nights – so be it. It will be worth it if it stops some of them from a life that will lead to prison.
Will anyone monitor the results of the strategy by Sussex Police? I hope so. It is better to have facts than guesses.
The young people who will be visiting Lewes Prison have been antisocial, stupid and perhaps intimidating. I certainly would not be happy if I had experienced that sort of behaviour from them.
The only important thing that must happen now is that the antisocial behaviour stops.
This seems like a strategy that could work – so well done to the local police for introducing it in Burgess Hill.
What about the rest of us? Will we argue along the lines of “You haven’t got the right…”, or will we encourage high-impact strategies that will stop young people from descending to a life of petty or serious crime?
History suggests that we are good at finding fault with other people’s ideas, but not so good at coming up with our own.
No wonder that a growing number of our young people have not yet discovered the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
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