Creating new criminals

摘要

At its conference last week, the Conservative party announced plans for a new "get tough" policy of longer and harsher prison sentences for persistent and violent offenders. The British government is also planning to impose strict new regimes on juvenile offenders, looking to the "glasshouses" of British military prisons for inspiration. The issue of locking up children and young people is nothing new. Parkhurst Prison for Boys was established in 1838 mainly as a consequence of the "moral panic" about juvenile gangs destroying property. Whether there was in fact an upsurge in juvenile crime is not known, but a perception that there was led to a drive to protect juveniles both from themselves and from contamination by professional criminals. The same pressures are at work today.