Back in August 2004, I mentioned how New Labour had smuggled a cunning device into English Law.
Thousands of kids are being criminalised by the use of the powers contained in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. The civil law provisions in the Act allow the police use second-hand hearsay evidence to obtain Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.
The government has not exhausted this crafty procedure; a civil order followed by criminal proceedings, with substantial periods of custody for breach. Five years in the case of an ASBO. And Blunkett’s teeth have been sharpened.
Have a look at Section 5 of the Domestic Violence and Victims Bill introduced in the House of Lords at, I think, the turn of the year.Conviction is no longer a pre-requisite for an Order!
Now thousand more kids fall to be criminalised using the same crafty device. Civil Orders followed by criminal penalties.
This time the source is not the Home Office, but the Department of Education and Skills.
The Education Secretary Alan Johnson- a decent man- does not want to raise the school leaving age to 18- surely a sensible approach- he wants to make sure that 16 to 18 year olds stay in education or training. A laudable aim. But how does he intend to ensure the kids get their education and/or training?
Well out pops the the educational ASBO.
The Minister adds:
a simple £50 fine could be used to enforce attendance "without having to clog up the courts."
If the fixed notice was neither paid nor challenged, then the young person could be prosecuted in the youth courts and issued with a referral order which would set out an "appropriate intervention".
Breaching a referral order or not paying a fine will lead the young person further into the youth offending system," the Green Paper added.
So there we have it. Two favourite New Labour wheezes- civil orders followed by criminal penalties and the courts not being "clogged up" by reversing the burden of proof by dishing out fixed penalties. And of course more criminals "brought to justice".
Will it work? Surely the NUT General Secretary, Steve Sinnott has a point adding:
such a policy would "alienate and undermine" any desire disaffected youngsters may feel towards continuing in education.
He's probably got it right!
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