Community Custodialisation, Juvenile Disoffensivisation

A government report notes that, despite all the new offences on the statute books, despite ASBOs and the privatisation of the penal system, despite putting children in jails where only a few are permitted to carry out DIY death-penalties on themselves, and despite the saintly examples provided by the business and ministerial communities, juvenile reoffending rates are "very high and have not significantly changed" since New Labour came to power. Ministers apparently disagree over the possibility of moving towards a more "liberal" system which might "be seen as soft on crime and play badly with the public at a time when concerns about juvenile violence are on the rise", despite ten years of attempts by New Labour and the nation's voice of moral sanity, Paul Dacre, to put matters into perspective. As might be expected among the present day's political luminaries, the argument has Straw on one side and Balls on the other.

The shadow justice minister, whose party believes in building more jails, privatising the penal system, and subjecting young offenders to more hanging, flogging and yelling, registered the usual displeasure that New Labour and its successor, New New Labour, have failed to implement correctly the policies they stole from the Conservatives.