Background
The needs of young males from Wales in the youth justice system should not be overlooked, however the key concern in this article is to describe and reflect upon the impact incarceration has upon girls. This is important because the experience and perceptions of girls within the youth justice system have tended to be overlooked (Gelsthorpe and Sharpe, Reference Gelsthorpe, Sharpe, Goldson and Muncie2006). While it is well documented that female recorded crime in England and Wales is less than male recorded crime, in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of girls in contact with the youth justice system (Sharpe and Gelsthorpe, Reference Sharp and Gelsthorpe2009). The use of custody for girls has also risen sharply; between 1992 and 2006 the overall use of custody for juveniles (aged between ten and 17 years old) rose by 56 per cent, while during the same period the use of custody for girls rose by 297 per cent (Bateman, Reference Bateman2008). Gelsthorpe and Worrall (Reference Gelsthorpe and Worrall2009) argue that the recent ‘justice focus’ in respect of youth in trouble has resulted in increased criminalisation of girls’ behaviour, and a ‘gender blindness’ rather than ‘womenwise penology’. Moreover, they argue that net-widening by pre-emptive intervention with young people who are perceived to be ‘at risk of offending’, has had a dramatic impact – criminalising girls for behaviour which formerly would have been deemed problematic rather than criminal.
It is however, important to note that the overall numbers of incarcerated girls are still relatively small compared to boys. In March 2010, there were 2,209 young people held in the secure estate, of whom only 120 were girls (Youth Justice Board, 2010), but precisely because the numbers are relatively small the needs of these incarcerated girls have wrongly been overlooked. There are a growing number of girls entering the youth justice system, but interventions to address the criminogenic needs of girls’ offending is largely based upon research studies carried out with boys. There is a developing penal policy consensus that female offenders need to be treated differently (Heindensohn and Gelsthorpe, Reference Heindensohn, Gelsthorpe, Maguire, Morgan and Reiner2007), as a ‘gender-blind’ approach only exacerbates their oppression. The growing number of girls in the secure estate raises issues about how they should be accommodated and indeed how they should be treated and managed. This article will illustrate how these issues are heightened for incarcerated Welsh girls (who have additional needs to do with language, identity and isolation, and who are invariably held in English institutions).
The creation of the Youth Justice BoardFootnote 2 (YJB) for England and Wales, under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (Great Britain, 1998a), resulted in a unified system for incarcerating young people (aged ten to 17 years) involving a juvenile secure estate that included three types of accommodation: Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) run by the Prison Service; Secure Training Centres (STCs), which are smaller privately run custody units; and Secure Children's Homes (SCHs). At the time of writing, there are four STCs in England and none in Wales; there is one SCH in Wales which has 13 places, located in Neath near the South Wales coast. There is currently no women's prison in Wales, and just one male prison that can accommodate young males – Bridgend's Parc which has over a thousand adult prisoners and an additional 69 places for boys between 15 and 18 years. Invariably, this means that young people remanded in custody or sentenced to custody in North Wales have to serve their sentence a considerable distance from their homes, either incarcerated in South Wales or in England. The experience of Welsh children in the secure estate was the subject of a recent Welsh Assembly Communities and Culture Committee Inquiry which recommended that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) should consider seeking devolved responsibility for the juvenile secure estate. The Inquiry recognised and highlighted the particular problem of a lack of provision in North Wales (WAG, 2010).
The geographical isolation faced by young people from rural Welsh areas makes ongoing contact with family particularly difficult. In January 2009, 144 children (139 males and five females) from Wales were held within the secure estate; just over half of these children (72) had been transferred to the secure estate in England (Howard League, 2009). When incarcerated in another country there can also be additional issues of identity, language and discrimination – issues that can be more severely experienced by children. This raises important human rights concerns for boys and girls from Wales incarcerated in England; however, the girls face a double jeopardy as they are also caught up in a system geared for males in which their needs can be missed or marginalised. Burman and Batchelor (Reference Burman and Batchelor2009) suggest the voices of girls are not heard but instead are extrapolated from adult women, much like women's experiences have been extrapolated from men. Despite increased interest in children, young people and women who offend, there has been little research carried out upon the experience and perceptions of girls held in custody. Moreover, knowledge and understanding concerning the needs of Welsh girls held in the English secure estate is even more limited.
Girls in custody
It is known that women in custody have a history of social and personal disadvantage: 44 per cent have been in care, 33 per cent sexually abused, 40 per cent suffered violence at home, 76 per cent were excluded from school (Howard League, 2009) and 71 per cent diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder (Douglas and Plugge, 2006 cited in Bateman, Reference Bateman2008: 18). In 1997, following interviews with 234 female prisoners, the Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons recognised the specific needs of women, and stressed the importance for incarcerated women to be held in establishments within close proximity to their home to enable improved family contact. The report recommended that greater caution be exercised before incarcerating girls alongside women adult prisoners, and more generally prisons should not be used to hold juveniles (Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, 1997). A study focusing on the treatment and incarceration of teenage girls, Lost Inside, made a number of recommendations, including: the removal of girls under 18 years from prison establishments, recognition that the needs of juveniles were different from adult prisoners and the importance of ensuring that the basic needs of this group were met (Howard League, 1997). In terms of current practice, 15–16 year old girls are no longer accommodated in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) and 17 year old females placed in YOIs are now usually contained within small discrete units (Bateman, Reference Bateman2008). The recent building of separate units for girls has provided prison authorities with better resources to meet their needs.
Research on imprisonment and resettlement has focused largely upon incarcerated males, and the needs of women, which are typically more complex than those of men, tend to be overlooked (Gelsthorpe and Sharpe, Reference Gelsthorpe, Sharpe, Goldson and Muncie2006; McIvor et al., Reference McIvor, Trotter and Sheehan2009). In March 2007, a major review of females in the criminal justice system was published by Baroness Corston. The report highlighted the need for a radical, distinct and gendered approach to addressing women's offending and argued for greater diversionary measures so that fewer women would be incarcerated. When women are incarcerated, Corston argued for a more integrated, holistic approach to ensure women have access to support services at every point in the criminal justice process to ensure good resettlement.
One positive practical output from the Corston report in Wales was the development of the Women's Turnound Project (WTP) based in Cardiff, a voluntary organisation that offers a needs-based, client-centred, partnership approach to support women from Wales caught up in the criminal justice system (Holloway and Brookman, Reference Holloway and Brookman2008). While this project promotes woman-wise practice, the service is located in Cardiff (on the south Wales coast) making service delivery to rural North Wales impractical. The WTP also caters for women rather than girls, so there remains a need for a gender-sensitive service to support girls from across Wales who commit crime. The need for ‘wrap around’ pre- and post-release support becomes even more important given the under-provision of secure accommodation for girls in Wales, this tends to result in most girls being held in institutions far from their home town and often in England.
Devolution and youth justice in Wales
Following the Government of Wales Act 1998 (Great Britain, 1998b), secondary legislative powers were formally transferred from the UK Government to the devolved administration in Wales. At this point, the Welsh Assembly Government assumed most of the powers previously held by the Secretary of State for Wales, including executive responsibility for education and training, health, economic development, social services and local government. The UK Government, however, retained responsibility for overall economic policy, defence and all matters relating to the criminal justice system, including youth justice. Following the ‘Yes’ vote in the Referendum held in Wales on 3 March 2011, Wales will have direct law making powers for the 20 subject areas that have been devolved, meaning that the country can make laws without needing the agreement of Westminster in areas such as education, the environment, health, housing, local government and agriculture.
The issue of youth justice in Wales remains complex. Bransbury (Reference Bransbury2004) argues that, although the Labour administration has been committed to the process of devolution, the pragmatics involved (particularly in relation to non-devolved matters) remain unclear. The devolution settlement in Wales appears less robust than either Scotland or Northern Ireland. Hence, the Richard Commission (2004) argued that although by 1999 the Welsh and Scottish Departments of State had much in common, this did not apply to issues of policing and justice. Moreover, the Commission argued in relation to the existence of a strong Scottish tradition of devolved legislation with separate policy development and a keen sense of nationhood: ‘Broadly speaking, Wales has not had a sense of citizenship, unlike Scotland, which has had its own legal and other institutions’ (Richard Commission, 2004: 12). Arguably, this reflects an asymmetrical model of devolution in the UK. However, assisted by the coalition of Labour and Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales), the debate about devolution has been gathering momentum. The former chair of the Youth Justice Board, Professor Rod Morgan, was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2009 to carry out a review on the possibility of devolving the Welsh youth justice system. Within the report, Professor Morgan comments ‘Devolution is as much a process and political project as a constitutional state of affairs’ (2009: 28), and he critically examined the interface between devolved and non-devolved functions in relation to youth justice and youth crime prevention. The Welsh Assembly government already has responsibility for all the key child-related services apart from the administration of youth justice, and Morgan (Reference Morgan2009) therefore argues that, in light of this, youth justice is in effect the most devolved part of the criminal justice system in Wales. He concluded that policy may be better integrated if the Welsh Assembly was given overall administrative responsibility for youth justice, whilst recognising that responsibility for criminal justice policy on the whole is likely to remain with Westminster for the foreseeable future. A distinctive Welsh youth justice system is already evolving – one that is more focused upon the needs and rights of the child. This could be developed and enhanced further should youth justice administration be fully devolved.
Exploring the issues faced by girls from North Wales
The authors secured the support and co-operation from the North Wales Youth Offending Service Management Group and the North Wales Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) to carry out a small self-funded study to investigate the needs of girls from North Wales held in the secure estate. While it was a small-scale study confined to North Wales, it was hoped it would provide some useful insights into issues affecting girls across the whole of Wales and might help identify the focus for further research. The qualitative research used paper-based questionnaires with open-ended questions to obtain the perceptions and experiences of the girls in custody as well as those from YOT staff who worked directly with them. In recognition of the equal status and extent of Welsh language spoken, the questionnaires were presented in both English and Welsh to enable respondents to participate in their preferred language. In the county of Gwynedd, North Wales, the Census results of 2001 indicated that 72 per cent of people are Welsh speaking.
In order to explain the purpose of the research to a group of girls held in the secure estate, the Youth Offending Service Officers, who were currently working with the girls, agreed to share the questionnaire with them during a supervision session and if necessary assist with completion − for example, if literacy support was needed. It was important that this survey did not present any additional stress or confusion for the girls. It was assumed that young people would be more comfortable completing the questionnaire with a worker whom they knew, and someone they had developed a relationship of trust with, rather than with a researcher that they did not know. Ethical guidance and approval was obtained from the Glyndwr University's Research Ethics Committee. Young people within the criminal justice system are protected with anonymity (unless this is removed by direction of the court), and it was essential that anonymity and confidentiality was maintained, particularly with regard to publication of research findings. Bryman (Reference Bryman2001) suggests that guarantees of anonymity, confidentiality as well as user friendly accessible explanatory information can contribute positively to the response rate.
The short, open-ended, bilingual questionnaire and the accompanying explanatory letter was distributed to Youth Offending Service Officers to gain the Officers’ perceptions and experiences, along with a second questionnaire to elicit the perceptions and experiences of the girls held in custody – the Youth Offending Service Officers acting as gatekeepers. A sealable envelope was provided to store the completed questionnaires so the girls in custody had some assurance of anonymity and confidentiality. Two of the four North Wales Youth Offending Teams agreed to participate in the research; a total of 16 questionnaires were completed and returned; 12 questionnaires completed by Youth Offending Service staff and four questionnaires completed by girls held in the secure estate. It is important to note that while the number of responses from girls is low the overall number of girls from North Wales who are incarcerated is also low. In August 2009, there were 143 Welsh children and young people being held in the secure estate, of which only seven were girls: one aged 13; one aged 15; three aged 16 and two aged 17 (Morgan, Reference Morgan2009). All of the girls (four) who responded to the questionnaire had been placed in the secure estate in England.
The questionnaire responses were analyzed and coded thematically. Extracts which best represented the perceptions of respondents, under the emerging themes were selected to illustrate key points. Responses from Youth Offending Service Officers have been coded YOS, while responses from the girls were coded YP.
Findings
Key themes emerging from the YOS and YP respondents were: distance, isolation and family contact; Welsh language and discrimination; gender insensitivity; and being held in England. These issues are examined in more detail:
Distance and isolation
Distance from home and a sense of isolation from their home country were identified as key issues for girls in the secure estate; all four respondents stated a clear desire to be accommodated in Wales rather than in England, and when asked what was most important to them while incarcerated, they all stated they wanted to be closer to their family, for example, YP2 expressed concern it was difficult for her family and friends to maintain contact: ‘[the most important thing for me is] that I'm close enough to home to enable visits from family and friends’. It is evident that the physical distance from family can have a detrimental effect. This is a particular issue in rural areas such as North Wales as one Youth Offending Service staff member notes:
physical distance can prove difficult to receive visits from family etc. this can prove depressing if other inmates are seen to have more regular visits − infrequent visits could make them feel rejected and others could pick up on this fact. (YOS1)
The limited provision of female accommodation causes significant difficulties of isolation for girls from North Wales as YOS11 explains: ‘distance from home is greater for young girls than it is to the nearest YOI for boys’. Morgan (Reference Morgan2009) examining the shortfall in secure provision describes Wales as an ‘exporting’ custodial area, a situation which has very real consequences for these girls as there is no secure provision in Wales. The inaccessibility appears particularly acute for young girls from North Wales who are incarcerated in England and become unacceptably isolated from their family and support networks. Morgan defines ‘unreasonably distant’ as within 101–150 miles or between two and a half and three and three quarter hours by road, and ‘unacceptably isolated’ is calculated as more than 150 miles or over three and three quarter hours away.
A joint inspection report by the education service and prison service examining the needs of girls in prison found low self-esteem, depression and self-harm were common (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, 2004). The Welsh Assembly Inquiry into secure estate provision for young people in Wales (2010) emphasised the need for improved contact between young people and their family. Maintaining good links with the community is the key to successful re-settlement and rehabilitation (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, 2004), however, as suggested by respondent YOS1 above, the physical distance between home and the secure accommodation places additional stress upon this already vulnerable group of girls. This isolation from family and friends results in a more punitive sentence for Welsh girls and makes reintegration a more difficult task.
Welsh language
The research instruments were all available in Welsh and it was interesting to note that being able to communicate in their first language (Welsh) was identified as an important issue by both YOS staff and some of the young people. As a result of the marginalisation of the Welsh language by England since the nineteenth century (Madoc-Jones and Buchanan, Reference Madoc-Jones and Buchanan2004), there has been a significant decline in the number of people in Wales speaking Welsh; in 1911 the Census indicated 43.5 per cent of the population spoke Welsh, but by 1991, this figure had dropped to 18 per cent. However, there has been a resurgence of the Welsh language in recent years, and the 2001 Census showed that 20.5 per cent of the population spoke Welsh. Significantly, young people are by far the largest group of Welsh speakers, with 41 per cent of children and young people (between the ages of five and fifteen) being able to speak Welsh (Bwrdd Yr Iaith Welsh Language Board, 2001).
With more than one in three young people speaking Welsh it has major implications for young people from Wales held in the secure estate in England where only English is spoken. This not only prevents many of them from communicating in their first language but can also lead to bullying and discrimination (All Wales Youth Offending Strategy Consultation Report, 2003; Hughes and Madoc-Jones, Reference Hughes and Madoc-Jones2005). Respondents in this study offer further evidence of discrimination in relation to speaking Welsh, as staff respondent (YOS4) noted how: ‘Young Welsh girls are discriminated against for speaking another language by the other young people because they are considered different’. The All Wales Youth Offending Strategy Consultation Report highlighted the concern that Welsh speaking young people in the secure estate in England are not able to access any service in their first language. This omission is in conflict with the Welsh Assembly Government policy Extending Entitlement: Supporting Young People in Wales (2000) that recommends young people should be able to access services in the language of their choice.
The All Wales Youth Offending Strategy (2004) explicitly supports the extension of the universal entitlement to all children and young people; however, respondents in our study noted there was ‘No opportunity for cultural/language opportunities to be met’ (YOS5). In addition to being contrary to Welsh Assembly Government policy, the lack of opportunity for the cultural needs of incarcerated Welsh girls to be met contravenes Section 22 (5) of the Children Act 1989 (Great Britain, 1989), which states that a child must have his/her racial, cultural, religious and linguistic needs met. This point is particularly pertinent because, since the High Court Judgement by Lord Justice Munby in November 2002, the Children Act 1989 also applies to young people held in young offender institutions. First language Welsh speaking girls who get into trouble in Wales, but are exported to England to be held in secure accommodation should not be forced to communicate through their second language.
Respondents in the study expressed concern about the inability to engage with services in the medium of Welsh. One respondent (YOS11) complained about the ‘Lack of opportunity to attend education and offending behaviour work in Welsh’. This observation lends credence to the view of the Select Committee on Welsh Affairs report (2003: 20) that argued ‘Any idea that (the) curriculum is taken forward in the secure estate for England for Welsh children is a myth’. First-language Welsh speaking young people who in daily life think, speak and write in Welsh but are then (as a result of being sent to the secure estate in England) required to communicate and study in English, will struggle to reach their full potential and this is likely to have a detrimental impact upon their educational attainment (Hughes and Madoc-Jones, Reference Hughes and Madoc-Jones2005). One young girl who was required to undertake her studies through the medium of English while in custody, explained ‘It is hard . . . all my education is in English and I think in Welsh’ (YP2).
The current custodial sentence for young people between the ages of 12 and 17 is a Detention and Training Order (DTO). As is suggested by the title, in terms of the ‘training’ element, there is an emphasis on rehabilitation as a requirement of such a sentence. To this end, secure establishments offer programmes of intervention to address offending behaviour, however, if a young person followed a programme through English as their second language the effectiveness of the programme could be impaired, which could undermine successful rehabilitation. The DTO also requires that regular meetings take place in order to plan the sentence, with an emphasis on the young person and their carers taking an active role in this process (Youth Justice Board, 2004b), however, if these meetings cannot be held through the medium of Welsh it will impact upon the success of the DTO meetings. As one Youth Offending Service Officer explained: ‘lots of people discuss feeling disempowered when meetings are not held in their preferred language’ (YOS5). It is widely accepted that across the UK girls in custody are inadequately prepared or supported for their release back into the community (Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, 2004), a situation that is arguably made worse for first language Welsh speaking girls.
Gender insensitivity
To re-iterate, within the criminal justice system, the individual needs of girls are often difficult to meet as they are accommodated within a male orientated system (Gelsthorpe and Worrall, Reference Gelsthorpe and Worrall2009). A respondent Youth Offending Team Officer, YOS9, (a first language Welsh speaker who completed the questionnaire in Welsh) explained that: ‘oherwydd fod y sustem wedi'r paratoi yn well am bechgyn a dynion ifanc’ [‘the system is better prepared for young men and boys’]. This has a number of important practical consequences for incarcerated girls as there is a limited number of offending behaviour programmes which have been designed specifically for females. Batchelor and Burman (Reference Batchelor, Burman and McIvor2004) highlight a further difficulty arising from the small numbers of girls within the secure estate – it means that the staff involved have limited experience in working with this specific group of offenders. Subsequently, youth justice workers tend to find working with this specific group of individuals difficult because they often ‘lack awareness of their specific needs’ (Batchelor and Burman, Reference Batchelor, Burman and McIvor2004: 273).
The importance of developing gender sensitive policy and practice in a criminal justice system that has been constructed to cater for male offenders has long been advocated (Carlen, Reference Carlen2002). The Youth Justice Board (2004a) who evaluated the service for girls across England and Wales found less than half the youth offending teams had developed community based programmes specifically for girls. Within the secure estate the YJB found very few offending behaviour programmes for girls. The YJB made recommendations for both community and custodial provision: ‘YOTs and the secure estate should be encouraged to collate and use gender specific data to inform the development of gender specific programmes’ (Youth Justice Board, 2004a: 11).
Sent to England
The Youth Offending Team Officers were asked about their experience and perceptions of Welsh girls being placed in the secure estate in England. Respondents clearly felt that serving a sentence in England exacerbated what was already a traumatic experience, citing factors such as ‘issues of language, culture, marginalisation, discrimination and support’ (YOS2), moreover girls from Wales placed in England ‘feel alienated, regarded as an outsider, taunted’ (YOS1). All respondents from the Youth Offending Service expressed the view that Welsh girls should not be placed in the secure estate in England but should serve their sentence in Wales. This was important for stability, identity and re-integration, as one YOS worker explained: ‘in order to mix with people from the same culture – this would help them settle easier’.
In relation to the responses from the four young people that completed the questionnaire, similar views to those expressed above were echoed; the girls described feeling isolated and experiencing discrimination for being Welsh, YP4 said ‘Because if you are Welsh and the only person . . . everyone picks on you’, this can also be fuelled by discriminatory ethnic stereotypes as alluded to by YP1 who said ‘Some English people judge the Welsh’, while YP2 was more specific ‘My accent makes me stand out and some of the others tease me’.
Issues of distance, language, regional accent and culture are likely to be most pronounced for children and young people incarcerated from Mid, West and North Wales, where there is also a serious lack of secure provision. Rod Morgan argues that this group are most likely to experience custody as ‘culturally as well as physically isolating’ – moreover, ‘their sense of vulnerability, and possible vulnerability, may be exacerbated’ (2009: 42).
Discussion
The UK consistently has one of the highest rates of imprisonment across western European countries, including the highest numbers of children and young people incarcerated (Wood, Reference Wood2008). By April 2008, the number of young people in the secure estate in England and Wales had risen to over 3,000, of whom 85 per cent were held in Youth Offenders Institutions, and the remaining 15 per cent in secure facilities. Most of these young people (93 per cent) were male (Youth Justice Board, 2008). Between 1996 and 2006 there was a 550 per cent increase in the sentencing of children under 15 years of age to custody (Barnardo's, 2008). To counter this trend it is important to avoid approaches that might encourage their incarceration. Young people who commit crime should be seen as children first and offenders second (All Wales Youth Offending Strategy Group, 2004).
The authors recognise that in exceptional circumstance a minority of young people (male and female) may require secure accommodation. Secure provision in Wales has been a problem for many years (Youth Justice Board, 2004c) and the lack of secure accommodation for girls in Wales means that some children will be more than a three hour journey away from their home address (WAG, 2010). While it could be argued this issue would be addressed if the provision of Secure Children's Homes in Wales was significantly increased, this action could unintentionally obfuscate the important underlying issue of net-widening (Pritchard, 2010), in that far too many children are caught up in the youth justice system, and once caught into the system sentencing practices up-tariff youth (Bateman, Reference Bateman2005) propelling them towards incarceration. In highlighting the issues posed by incarcerating children from Wales this article adds further weight to the argument for diversionary programmes to keep young people from criminalisation and away from incarceration. Barry Goldson, a strong advocate of diversionary measures, argues this should be based upon a principle that:
whenever possible, children and young people in conflict with the law should be directed away (diverted) from the youth justice apparatus. In cases where absolute diversion is deemed inappropriate, the level of formal criminal/youth justice intervention should be limited to the minimum that is judged to be absolutely necessary. (2010: 163)
Some commentators, such as Hedderman (Reference Hedderman2010) have suggested that magistrates should be prevented from imposing short term prison sentences on female offenders. It is encouraging that during the past two years in Wales there has been a significant fall in the number of young people incarcerated from in excess of 3,000 in 2008 to just over 2,200 in 2010 (Youth Justice Board, 2010) – this trend needs to continue.
Despite an increased focus on women in the criminal justice system, the experience of girls within the secure estate and in particular Welsh girls is under-researched. There is a need to understand and improve gender specific knowledge so that policy and practice can be better tailored to the needs of females who offend. Girls in the secure estate often have a history of personal and structural disadvantage (Howard League, 2009). This article has highlighted how Welsh girls experience other stresses that can make their sentence more severe, and their chances of reconnecting with family and friends, rehabilitation and reintegration more problematic. The additional needs and issues faced by Welsh girls who are incarcerated include: excessive and unreasonable travelling distances for both family/carers, friends and Youth Offending Service staff; isolation from home and family; discrimination and bullying, particularly when incarcerated in another country; lack of provision for first language Welsh speakers; limited secure provision in Wales; and gender insensitive service delivery. Placing Welsh girls in custody in England and not addressing their linguistic and cultural needs could contravene the duty under the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 to promote the well-being of children. Furthermore, the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:
In those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, these minorities must not be denied the right, in common with other members of their group, to enjoy their culture, preach and practice their religion and speak in their own language. (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 1976, Article 27)
In addition, the Human Rights Act 1998 (Great Britian, 1998c) and Welsh Assembly Government policy both identify language and identity as fundamental rights. Protecting these linguistic and cultural rights for Welsh young people who are incarcerated is not only important for their experiences while in custody but also has implications for their subsequent rehabilitation in the community.
Wales arguably has a different approach to children and youth justice than England. In particular the focus in Wales is upon: the Rights of the Child as defined by the UN Convention; seeing the person as a child first rather than an offender and seeking inclusion rather than exclusion (WAG, 2000). The delivery of this approach is upheld and administered largely by devolved services such as housing, education, health and social care but clearly in respect of incarcerated young people and girls in particular, a significant proportion become subject to a London based Westminster government system rather than a Welsh Assembly Government Children's Rights based approach. This raises important issues in terms of Welsh and England collaboration and communication, the use of incarceration outside the sentencing country, and the lack of secure estate provision in Wales.
Conclusion
The aim should be to divert young people away from the youth justice system. For those who cannot be diverted, instead of holding them in the secure estate, supervising them in the community is the most desirable and effective option. Developing individually tailored intervention plans can be challenging for agencies, but as Gelsthorpe (Reference Gelsthorpe, Bateman and Pitts2005: 229) argues:
Girls and young women are generally not a priority for service and programme provision, but effective gender responsive programmes and interventions, drawing on girls’ own thoughts and insights, are necessary to help them deal with difficult social realities they experience.
In those rare circumstances when children require secure accommodation, it is imperative that incarcerated Welsh girls (or indeed boys) should not be placed long distances from their homes, nor should they be forced to serve their sentences in England. When secure accommodation is absolutely necessary the authors would argue that a Welsh based Secure Children's Home is the least detrimental alternative to meet the needs of this vulnerable group. In comparison to prisons and Secure Training Centres, Secure Children's Homes are a less institutional, more child-centred, and better resourced environment.
