Every child to be screened for risk of turning criminal under Blair justice plan
· Police would demand DNA samples from all suspects
· Tories condemn strategy as 'nanny state gone mad'
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Wednesday March 28, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/print/0,,3 ... 70,00.htmlGuardian
A new-style "11-plus" to assess the risk every child in Britain runs of turning to crime was among a battery of proposals unveiled in Tony Blair's crime plan yesterday.
The children of prisoners, problem drug users and others at high risk of offending will also face being "actively managed" by social services and youth justice workers. New technologies are to be used to boost police detection rates while DNA samples are to be taken from any crime suspect who comes into contact with the police.
The "early intervention" approach is part of a package of proposals on security, crime and justice produced by Downing Street which underline the scale of criminal justice reform Mr Blair believes is still needed despite passing 53 law and order bills since he came to power in 1997.
The shadow home secretary, David Davis, focused his criticism on the extension of the DNA database to any crime suspect and the early intervention plans for children. He described the proposal to assess every child for risk of offending as the "nanny state gone mad" while he said the Conservatives would have "great and grave concerns" about any extension of the DNA database.
A Home Office spokeswoman said the universal checks on children would look at factors including attainment at school, truancy rates, and substance abuse.
A high-level review of the police that will not address the vexed question of force mergers is also planned, as are an extension of "summary justice" measures and tougher community punishments with the creation of specialist new courts. The plan is sprinkled with eye-catching initiatives such as MP3 music players that can be accessed only with the owner's fingerprints, crowd scanners that detect bombs and efficiency league tables for courts.
The crime package, agreed by the cabinet 12 days ago, came without any time-table or costings and some proposals - such as "hybrid prisons" to treat mentally ill offenders - are clearly labelled as "for the long term". In some parts of Whitehall yesterday the plan was described at best as "blue skies thinking" and at worst as "undeliverable". Opposition MPs wasted no time in criticising it as the PM's swansong after "10 years of failure".
But Mr Blair made clear yesterday that the pace of public service reform in criminal justice needed to match that in health and education. Despite some headlines suggesting the crime plan had been designed to cut the record prison population of 80,000, the 105-page strategy paper talks only of "stabilising sentencing" rather than cutting prisoner numbers.
"This is not an alternative to prison, it is in addition to prison," said Mr Blair before highlighting a renewed drive to focus on the 100,000 prolific "career criminals" responsible for the bulk of crime.
Mr Blair also focused on a proposed new "prolific offender order" under which several hundred "hardcore" career criminals would only be released from prison under licence for the rest of their lives. Those who breach the conditions of their licences - including a ban on associating with known criminals - could face up to a further three years in jail.
"These people have serious problems and targeting the offender means taking those problems seriously. And we have proof that it works," said Mr Blair.
But Home Office research published yesterday appeared to undermine the claim, pointing out that although the results were encouraging "no specific conclusions could be drawn" from an initial drop in offending rates amongst 7,800 "career criminals" on the prolific offender programme since 2004.
The measures in the plan aimed at tackling mental health and drug problems among prisoners were widely welcomed yesterday, with the Liberal Democrats claiming the prime minister had finally adopted their policies.
The package leaves a question mark over the future of the Home Office with a policy paper talking of the need for a "strong, strategic centre" in government to provide the political leadership to deal with the terrorist threat. But the announcement on splitting John Reid's department into two separate ministries of national security and justice has yet to be made.
The wide-ranging strategy document touches on questions of immigration and asylum, raising the prospect of a review of the impact of human rights legislation in this area and holding out the possibility of a "duty to integrate" being imposed on new migrants.
Early intervention
· Vulnerable children and "those at risk of criminality", including those whose parents are in prison and/or among the 300,000 problem drug abusers, are to be "actively case managed" by Children's Trust social services staff and youth justice workers from "the earliest possible point".
· Universal checks on every child throughout his or her development to help "service providers" identify those most at risk of offending throughout their development, including at 11 when they go to secondary school.
· Preventative programmes to tackle social exclusion, drugs and alcohol abuse.
Detecting crime and enforcing the law
· New types of summary powers, including a "criminal benefit order" to seize the assets of offenders in low-value cases, confiscate "lifestyle assets" such as jewellery, plasma TV screens and laptops, and scrap the current 12-year time limit on asset recovery cases. Expansion of existing "on-the-spot" fines to deal with offenders without going to court.
· Greater use of new technology, including mobile fingerprint readers for the police, crowd scanners that detect bomb-related devices, developing fingerprint-only access MP3 players and expanding the DNA database to all suspects who come into contact with the police. The last proposals would bring hundreds of thousands more people within the scope of the police DNA database. Downing Street says it is also looking at more advanced forms of CCTV, including systems that allow facial recognition of individuals and can scan postal packages for explosive devices.
· Launch of a review of the police, headed by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, looking into the options for reducing bureaucracy, increasing local accountability and spreading the use of neighbourhood policing teams.
Courts and sentencing
· In the face of a record 80,000 prison population the government now says it wants to "stabilise sentencing" by making non-custodial sentences more effective and to strengthen the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in prison. In the long term "hybrid prisons" will be set up to treat mentally ill offenders.
· The performance of the courts to be driven up by publishing league tables of efficiency, "virtual courts" to be created using video-link technology so defendants can be dealt with in police stations, and community justice and specialist courts set up to deal with those with mental health problems and others. Greater involvement of voluntary organisations and charities. Also, the introduction of "review courts" under which the same judge looks at the progress of an offender after sentence.
· Step up the pace of workforce reform among court, probation and prison staff with greater use of private sector competition, and break down traditional demarcations.
Prolific Offenders
· A merger of the prolific offenders and drug intervention programmes which are aimed at the 100,000 "career criminals" who are responsible for half of all crime. A new "prolific offender licence" which would see the 500 most prolific offenders placed on licence when they are released from prison for the rest of their lives. Conditions attached might include a ban on associating with known criminals. This is a relaunch of the 2004 crime plan, which led to the prolific offenders' programme. The government claimed yesterday it had been a success because conviction rates of those on the programme had fallen by 43%. But actual figures show that the 7,800 offenders on the programme had been convicted of 55,000 offences in the 17 months before they went on the scheme and convicted of 31,377 crimes after they started, hardly a ringing endorsement of a flagship government programme.
Immigration and community cohesion
· Review the human rights laws to ensure they do not restrict implementation of the government's asylum and immigration policies.
· Rigorously enforce the responsibilities of migrants in Britain, including compulsory health insurance for visitors who come to the country on work permits.
· The duty on new migrants to integrate into British society is to be defined.
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