Parents of Scots yobs to face jail

Published on Sunday 19 May 2002 01:00

PARENTS will face fines or prison if they fail to control the criminal behaviour of their children, under plans being drawn up by Labour to tackle the scourge of youth offending in Scotland.

The hardline proposals have been placed at the heart of the party’s Holyrood re-election strategy to counter growing public fear over violence, vandalism and disorder.

Labour has identified a hard core of 2,500 serious or repeat offenders under 16 who are at the centre of a crime wave in Scotland and yet cannot be controlled by the children’s hearing system.

First Minister Jack McConnell wants to address the problem by forcing parents to take responsibility for the anti-social behaviour of their children.

The key proposal is the introduction of parenting orders, which new youth courts would be allowed to impose under the plans being considered by Labour’s Scottish parliament manifesto drafting team.

If parents fail to improve their children’s behaviour they would themselves be subject to custodial sentences and fines.

Other sweeping Labour proposals to make the streets safer include an expansion in the number of secure places for the worst tearaways, a 999-style police hotline for street crime, more curfews banning youths from venturing outside after dark, and an expansion of community policing.

But it is the plan for parenting orders - available to courts south of the Border since 2000 - which is causing most controversy.

Earlier this month the use of a parenting order in England led to 43-year-old Oxfordshire mother, Patricia Amos, being jailed for 60 days for failing to stop her children playing truant.

Children’s groups have reacted angrily to the prospect of similar moves in Scotland. Liz Garrett, the head of Barnardo’s UK, denounced the idea as "counter-productive".

She said: "There are a huge number of children and families in poverty, so what is the point of taking more money off them? And sending people to jail is ridiculous. It would prove really tough on the family."

Garrett warned that custodial sentences for parents could lead to children being taken into care and urged ministers to provide more facilities to keep youngsters occupied instead of "blaming parents all the time".

Joe Connolly, the Scottish director of child services with NCH Action for Children, agreed that parenting orders would "simply have a detrimental effect on those families already encountering difficulties".

But Labour ministers, who have come under intense pressure from their backbench colleagues to get tough, believe that forcing parents to take more responsibility and locking up more of the worst offenders is vital to winning the war against youth crime.

Ministers are particularly alarmed by the fact that the number of young repeat offenders has almost doubled in the past 10 years - many of the 33,000 who go to children’s hearings each year have already appeared more than 10 times.

A chronic lack of secure accommodation - there are currently only 96 places for teenage tearaways in secure units - has compounded the problem.

The shortage recently resulted in a 13-year-old who had committed more than 50 crimes in Edinburgh being freed to continue his spree because there was nowhere to house him.

He had been responsible for a spate of car thefts, vandalism, assaults and harassment of residents in the city’s Willowbrae and Northfield.

Statistics show that youth crime accounts for 66% of car thefts and 44% of vandalism.

Labour is determined to create more secure places to lock up young repeat and serious offenders in conjunction with the new youth courts.

A senior Labour source said: "We have to be realistic and recognise that there is a group of people whom children’s panels are not helping.

"A set-up with more clout which could give communities some respite by taking these criminals off the streets for a while would help."

The source said the party’s manifesto team examining proposals for parenting orders were not seeking to "punish parents for bad children" but to punish bad parents.

"The case of the English woman imprisoned over her daughter’s truancy was about her refusing to do anything about it.

"What we are looking at is if your child is spraying graffiti or vandalising and the youth court believes there is something you could do to stop it but you refuse to do so, there could be a fine or you could be forced to clear it up."

Defaulting on fines could lead to prison sentences for Scottish adults.

But civil rights campaigners claimed the new moves would make little difference. Professor Alan Miller, a human rights expert at Strathclyde University, said: "Crimes can be related to drugs or alcohol abuse, unemployment or a lack of life expectations... which can be very difficult to deal with. Parents are as much victims as their children."

Last week Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP’s justice spokeswoman, unveiled plans for compensation and restoration orders under which parents who fail to control their children could not only be fined but also ordered to repair damage.

Last night she accused Labour of stealing SNP ideas and urged McConnell to act now rather than wait until next year.

The disclosures are also likely to place further strain on Labour’s coalition with the Liberal Democrats, whose leader Jim Wallace is justice minister.

Lib Dems have made no secret of their distaste for similar hardline justice plans announced for England and there is a growing rift within the coalition over which party should take the lead on crime issues.