23rd May 2010
Ken Foxe, Public Affairs Correspondent at The Sunday Tribune, reports that “Keeping a troubled child at one of the state’s detention schools cost an average of €540,000 per youngster last year.”
Children Detention Schools are positive examples of best practice in terms of youth justice; in light of this, the figures quoted by Foxe can be deemed necessary spending in order to create such positive places for children.
It is the contention of IPRT that the commitment, in terms of money and staff, which is devoted to the Children Detention Schools in Ireland, should be matched when it comes to safeguarding children in their communities and at the earliest stages of their development.
The principles of justice reinvestment would suggest that a sustained, long-term goal of lifting children, families and communities out of those conditions which leaves them ‘at risk’ would pay huge dividends in terms of the offending rates for those same children in the future.
Read the article in The Sunday Tribune here.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.