PATHWAYSFROM CRIME

Ten steps to amore effectiveapproach for

young adults inthe criminal

justice process

SUMMARY REPORT

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Short prison sentences, followed by minimal post-release support, or conventional communitysentences with limited engagement from anoverworked probation service, cannot be expected toprovide the support or challenge that young adultsneed, as they emerge from the protections – howeverlimited – that they could rely on as juveniles.

There are no simple equations to turn round alreadydamaged lives; and the latest work on desistance –why people stop offending – reminds us that this is ajourney, not an event. But the provision of rigorous,individualised and focused support and mentoring –walking alongside young people as they try tochange the narrative of their lives – does work. It hasbeen described as a ‘probation plus’ model. Recentevaluations of the T2A pilots have shown that, of 34young adults tracked, many with prolific offendinghistories, only three had offended within six months,and none violently. Even allowing for the halo effectof small, enthusiastically led pilots, these areremarkable findings.

From those pilots, and the other research and policywork carried out over the last three years, T2A hasdeveloped a strong evidence base from which it has distilled ten Pathways from Crime. They are set out inthis report, and provide a road-map for politicians,policy-makers and practitioners. They do not requirelegislative change, but they do require a change ofapproach and focus. That is an investment well worthmaking. This is not just an age-group with high levelsof recidivism, but one where there is also the greatestopportunity to divert someone from a criminal career:studies have shown that 18 is also the peak age fordesistance from crime. There is much good practicehere, which if replicated and reinforced wouldsignificantly benefit victims and potential victims,young adult offenders themselves, and wider society.

In 2001, as I became Chief Inspector of Prisons, theLabour government entered its second term with amanifesto promise to extend to young adultoffenders the focused and specialised attention that ithad tried to provide for juveniles during its first term.But this never happened. As a result, as I said in mylast Annual Report as Chief Inspector of Prisons, theyhave remained ‘a neglected and under-resourced agegroup’: with a high likelihood of reoffending and alow level of specific and targeted investment.

That is why the work of the T2A Alliance is soessential and so timely. Moving on from an analysis ofthe problem in ‘Lost in Transition’, the BarrowCadbury Trust has worked with a range ofpractitioners, academics and policy groups to developand support the kind of practical interventions thatwork. In three main pilot projects, multi-disciplinaryteams have developed models of support relevant todifferent kinds of young adult offenders, from thosewho have committed more serious and persistentoffences to those whose offending is less entrenchedand less serious.

The Alliance has also done valuable work on theconcept of maturity, which is self-evidently not thesame as biological age. Blowing out the candles onan 18th birthday cake does not magically transformanyone into a fully functioning and mature adult –even without the life disadvantages many youngpeople in criminal justice have experienced. It is welcome that lack of maturity is now one of themitigating factors that sentencers need to takeaccount of: but it is only one factor, and sentencersmay not have, or may not know of, relevant andeffective sentencing options for this group.

The greatest frustration, for those working in thesystem as well as victims and young offenders, is thatwe know what does not work, but carry on doing it.

ForewordDame Anne Owers

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Summary Report

The Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance is a broadcoalition of organisations, convened by the BarrowCadbury Trust, that evidences and promotes ‘theneed for a distinct and radically different approach toyoung adults in the criminal justice system; anapproach that is proportionate to their maturity andresponsive to their specific needs’.

T2A is a coalition of 12 leading criminal justice,health and youth organisations: Addaction, Catch22,the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Clinks, theCriminal Justice Alliance, the Howard League forPenal Reform, Nacro, the Prince’s Trust, the PrisonReform Trust, the Revolving Doors Agency, the YoungFoundation, and YoungMinds. It is convened by theBarrow Cadbury Trust, an independent charitablefoundation with a long-standing commitment topenal reform.

Though three pilot projects running since 2009, theT2A approach has been shown to enable desistancethrough a reduction in offending behaviour, anincrease in compliance with court orders,

The T2A Pathway:Executive Summary

1 Policing and arrest 2 Diversion 3 Restorative

Justice

6 Sentencing 5 Prosecution 4

Enabling desistance from crime 10 Resettlement 9

7 Managing the transfer process 8 Custody

CommunitySentences

improvements to employment and accommodationoutcomes, better family relationships and healthierlives (see overleaf).

The T2A Pathway identifies ten points in the criminaljustice process where a more rigorous and effectiveapproach for young adults and young people in thetransition to adulthood (16-24) can be delivered.

The audience for this summary document is broad,but it should be of particular interest to policy-makerswho work to support the criminal justice process. The full version of this paper (with a full chapter foreach of the pathway stages outlined in this summary)is available at www.t2a.org.uk and is aimed atcommissioners, practitioners and policy-makers whowork to support the criminal justice process. It ishoped that professionals at all levels and acrossmultiple sectors will act on this body of evidence toadapt and adopt the T2A pathway to ensure that allareas deliver an effective approach for young adultsthroughout the criminal justice process.

Summary report – full report available at www.t2a.org.uk/pathways

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Summary Report

West Mercia T2A

Run by YSS, the project works in the communitywith young adult offenders with high needs.The project offers a flexible, community based,one-to-one support and mentoring service. YSShas established a multi-agency T2A steeringgroup with senior management representationfrom across the criminal justice sector, and theT2A project encourages regular discoursebetween the West Mercia Probation Trust andthe Youth Offending Team. Keyworkers areregular visitors at statutory agency teammeetings and will often meet up to discuss T2Areferrals. The project operates across the WestMercia region, in Worcestershire, Herefordshire,Shropshire and Telford local authority areas.

London T2A

Led by the St Giles Trust the project works withyoung adults in the community and in prisonbefore and after their release. It providesintensive support to divert young adults awayfrom offending and enables them to build a newlife for themselves. Support offered includes helpwith housing, accessing training andemployment, as well as emotional support withissues such as relationships, behaviour, self-esteem and self-perception. The service isdelivered by trained keyworkers who are all ex-offenders, which ensures a level of trust andcredibility. The London T2A project worksalongside local police, youth offending teamsand probation service, who make direct referrals.

Birmingham T2A

Delivered by the Staffordshire and West MidlandsProbation Trust, the project is aimed at youngadults aged 17-24 identified as posing a mediumrisk of reoffending. The project enablesinterventions to be tailored to the maturity andneeds of the individual young adult and offersmentoring, as well as specific help withaccommodation, employment, relationships andsubstance misuse. The project manages thetransfer process of all young people movingacross from the Youth Offending Service to adultProbation services, and works in the courts toensure that sentencers are kept informed aboutcommunity options and alternatives to custody,particularly following breach of an order.

The T2A AllianceThe T2A Alliance was born from the Barrow CadburyTrust’s ‘Commission on Young Adults in the CriminalJustice System’, published in 2005, whichrecommended systemic change including theestablishment of ‘young adult teams’ in each localityto directly address and support the points oftransition faced by young people as they approachmaturity and full adulthood.

Since it was established in 2008, T2A has producedmore than 40 reports and, since 2009, threeT2A pilots projects have tested the T2Aapproach in different locations and withdifferent cohorts of young people: InWest Mercia, Birmingham and London,delivered by Youth Support Services(YSS), Staffordshire and WestMidlands Probation Trust, and the StGiles Trust respectively.

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The T2A pilots have been subject to three forms ofevaluation. A formative evaluation by the Universityof Oxford’s Centre for Criminology (published in 2011)identified promising early results and highlighted theprojects’ success in engaging young adults in actionswhich will help them towards better lives.

A break-even analysis by Matrix Evidence found that,using the most conservative estimate, the pilotswould have to reduce offending by only 28% overtwo years to break even (i.e. 72% of young peoplecould reoffend and the pilots would still break even interms of the amount saved to the public purse byhaving prevented reoffending by the remainder).

A summative evaluation by Catch22 published in2012 found that, based on a random sample of 34young adults from across the three T2A pilots trackedover a 6 month period:

• Only three were reconvicted ofa new offence (all non-violent)

• Only three breached the termsof their community order orlicence;

• The number in employment trebled; and

• The numberclassified NEET halved

In a comparison with young adults who only receivedprobation support, those from the T2A cohort hadmore positive outcomes. The reconviction rates aresignificantly lower than the national average, stronglyindicating that the pilots are not only breaking even,but providing a significant cost-benefit.

The challenge facing youngadults todayYoung adults in the UK today are facing some of themost challenging circumstances faced by this agegroup for generations and the signs are that this isset to get even more difficult. Over 22.2% of youngadults are not in education, employment or training(NEET), and 1.04 million young people (16-24) areunemployed, the highest since records begin in 1992(ONS 2012).

The abolition of the Education MaintenanceAllowance, increased tuition fees for furthereducation, massive cuts to youth services and furthercaps on housing benefit will disproportionally affectyoung adults.

In these challenging economic times, every penny ofpublic funds should be spent on what is effective. Therationale for a focus on young adults is clear, and theevidence for what works with this age group isirrefutable.

Supporting the transition to adulthood and theimportance of getting itrightYoung people face multiple transitions into adulthood(such as leaving education, finding a job, livingindependently, or becoming a parent), and thesetransitions are happening later in life than everbefore. In addition, research on brain developmentshows that ‘young adulthood’ is a particular stageand that the adult brain is not fully developed until atleast the mid-20s.

Young adults with complex problems often face theadditional challenge of multiple transitions betweenservices and systems. Often these young people fallbetween the gaps, when they lose the very supportor intervention that might help them make a smoothtransition to adulthood and, perhaps as aconsequence, this is also the time when youngpeople are most likely to come into contact with thecriminal justice process.

Evaluation, impact and theeconomic case

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The independent Riots, Communities and VictimsPanel, commissioned by the Prime Minister in 2011 toinvestigate that summer’s civil disturbances, noted inits final report that:

Justice is a particularly pronouncedexample of where the nature and typeof interventions provided shift quickly at18, whereas the specific needs of theindividual follow a more complex andextended path’. (Riots, Communities and Victims Panel 2012 p. 91)

The criminal justice process does not recognise thespecific needs of young adults; a missed opportunityand a waste of resources. There are inter-generationalconsequences – a quarter of those in Young OffenderInstitutions are, or are shortly to become, fathers andsome 60% of women in custody are mothers1.

The issue has been recognised before, including in areport by the Advisory Council on the Penal System,which recommended that:

A special concentration of public effortupon this group of young adults, whoare in danger of going on to long andcostly criminal careers, is a sensibleinvestment by society at a time whenresources, both human and material, aretoo scarce to allow a similar degree ofattention to be paid to all age groups’.

That was in 1974. Four decades on, action is nowboth urgent and long overdue.

The T2A Pathway outlines ways that criminal justiceprofessionals can make interventions with youngadults more effective. The T2A Pathway is achievablenow, within the existing legislative framework. It istime to fully recognise that young people in thetransition to adulthood require specific, tailoredsupport through this process of change, and not anarbitrary cut-off from services at the time of greatestneed.

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1. Unless otherwise stated, statistics presented throughout this report aretaken from Prison Reform Trust (2011), ‘Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile’,December 2011, London: PRT

Young adults and thecriminal justice processYoung adults and young people in the transition toadulthood (16-24) are the most likely age group tocommit a criminal offence, but, with the rightintervention and support, are also the most likely todesist from offending and ‘grow out of crime’.

Figure: The age-crime curve

Young adults make up less than 10% of the Britishpopulation, but account for more than one-third ofthose commencing a community sentence, one-thirdof the probation service’s caseload and almost one-third of those sentenced to prison every year.

Three out of four young adults leaving prison arereconvicted of a crime within two years, and two outof three are reconvicted within two years of serving acommunity sentence. A non-specific approach foryoung adults is clearly is not effective.

The right intervention can facilitate desistance, whilethe wrong intervention can increase offending andextend the period that a young adult is engaged withcriminal justice agencies. It is during this point ofmaximum vulnerability and at the peak age foroffending that most youth services stop and youngpeople who were engaged have to change agenciesor lose their support altogether.

Rate per 10,000 population

(Source: McVie 2009, p. 40; for other discussions on the age-crime curve,see also Sampson and Laub 2003; Maruna 2000).

Age in years

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65

Males Females

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Restorative justice

Recommendation: Restorative justiceshould be considered for all young adultoffenders at all stages of the criminal justiceprocess, including pre-arrest, pre-sentence, andas part of a sentence.

Restorative justice has a solid research base showinghigh levels of victim satisfaction and a good impacton reducing reoffending. Restorative justice can be aseffective an intervention for young adult offenders asit is for those who are under 18.

Prosecution

Recommendation: As partof the decision-making process onarrest, charge and prosecution, the policeand the Crown Prosecution Service shouldconsider the ‘lack of maturity’ of a young adultoffender, alongside current considerations of‘youthfulness’, among the factors tendingagainst prosecution, in line with similarconsiderations by probation and sentencers laterin the process.

The CPS must use the public interest test whendeciding to charge an offender following an arrestand has the opportunity to work with the police andthe probation service to discontinue a prosecution atany time where appropriate.

Policing and arrest

Recommendation: The police shouldreceive specific training for managing contactwith young adults, particularly in relation to stopand search and, where possible, should seek todivert young adults into appropriate servicesaway from the criminal justice process.

Young adults are disproportionately likely to comeinto contact with the police and an arrest andcriminal record can have a very detrimental impact ona young person’s future, particularly employment.Conditional cautions and restorative justiceinterventions can be an appropriate alternative to anarrest in many circumstances.

Diversion

Recommendation: Drug, alcohol andmental health services should support youngadults in the criminal justice process and havearrangements in place for managing thetransition between child and adult services.Appropriate young adult diversion servicesshould be commissioned in partnership with the police.

Many young adult offenders have particular needs inrelation to alcohol, drug and mental health problems,and a poor transition between services at 18 canincrease offending behaviour. Diversion intoappropriate treatment can take place throughout thecriminal justice process.

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PATHWAYSFROM CRIMEThe T2A Pathway

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Sentencing

Recommendation: More should be donecentrally and at a local level to develop theapproach to identifying and responding tovarying developmental maturity of young adultsin the criminal justice process. Criminal justiceprofessionals should support the sentencingprocess by ensuring that lack of maturity isidentified. Pre-sentence reports by the probationservice should consider the maturity of all youngadult offenders, and clearly recommend andadvocate to the court an effective response and,where appropriate, a robust community-basedintervention.

The concept of maturity has been found in a criminaljustice context in Britain for more than a century, andthere are a number of international examples of howyoung adults’ maturity can be taken into account.Considering the maturity of a young adult offender inthe sentencing process is supported by research, bythe public and by MPs. Since 2011, ‘lack of maturity’has been a mitigating factor in the SentencingGuidelines for adult offenders, across a range ofoffences.

Community sentences

Recommendation: The few existingexamples of young adult specific communityinterventions that exist across the country shouldbe replicated nationally, and similar effectiveinterventions should be available to allsentencers when sentencing a young adult. Moreshould be done to develop the scope of theAttendance Centre requirement, as well astailoring other available community sentenceoptions to the specific needs of young adults.

Young adults represent a third of the probationservice’s caseload, and have one of the highest ratesof reoffending, so should be seen as a priority. Onlyone community sentence requirement is specificallyfor young adults (the Attendance Centrerequirement), and it is rarely used.

Managing the transfer process

Recommendation: All Youth OffendingServices and Probation Trusts should developarrangements to manage the transfer process toensure that young adults receive the supportthey need to comply with their sentence orlicence.

Despite strong evidence that the transition toadulthood is a process, not a moment in time,criminal justice agencies abruptly change theirresponse to young offenders the moment they turn18. The case transfer process between YouthOffending Services and adult probation is crucial, but is often poorly managed, which can exacerbateoffending.

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Custody

Recommendation: Lessons should belearned by the young adult YOI estate from thereduction in numbers of children in custody,which has enabled some degree of justicereinvestment from acute services to prevention.Every effort should be made to keep non-violent young adults out of custody, particularlyremand, and enable the courts to issue anintensive community sentence. Specificattention should be given to young adultwomen who require a distinct approach, and tothe over-representation of black and ethnicminority young adult prisoners.

Young adults represent a third of those sent toprison each year. The majority are held on remand orare serving short custodial sentences, which havebeen shown to be particularly ineffective at reducingoffending. Young adult men serving longer prisonsentences are normally held in Youth OffendingInstitutions, but report by the Chief Inspector ofPrisons have shown that they are much less effectivethan they could be. There is no specific provision foryoung adult women, who are disproportionatelylikely to receive a short sentence.

Resettlement

Recommendation: All prisons should haveresettlement plans in place for every young adultat least three months prior to their release and a‘through the gate’ service should be provided toevery young adult in custody.

Most reoffending by young adults on release fromprison occurs in the first three months, but prisonservices are rarely able to make the necessaryresettlement arrangements for a young adult leavingcustody. ‘Through the gate’ peer-mentoringservices have been shown to be effective forensuring continuity of support from prisonto community, and for preventingrelapse into offending behaviour.

Enabling desistance from crime

Recommendation: A young adult specificapproach (with a focus on securing stableaccommodation and long-term employment)should be implemented throughout criminaljustice service design, commissioning anddelivery to ensure that young adults coming outof the criminal justice process are supported tostop offending.

Stable accommodation, long-term employment, goodhealth and good relationships are all required toenable desistance. Employers are willing to give jobsto young adults with criminal convictions, but needpolitical leadership to promote good practice andhighlight success stories. Stable accommodation andfamily support are vital, particularly to prevent theinter-generational cycle of offending.

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Conclusion

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For many, the transition to adulthood is a period of significant andmultiple transitions. For young adults who have a complex combinationof needs, this time can be fractured and chaotic, damaging to them andtheir communities.

Young adults who experience educational failure, mental healthproblems, drug and alcohol addictions, unemployment, familydifficulties, or learning disabilities often end up on the fringes of thecriminal justice process by default when other services and supportstructures fall away on their 18th birthday.

It is in all our interests to ensure that these young adults go on to leadcrime free lives, fulfil their potential and give back positively to theircommunities. The current criminal justice process is simply failing youngadults, often making them more, not less, likely to commit crime.

This report describes an effective and rigorous approach that can beapplied to support young adults throughout the criminal justice process.The T2A pilots have shown how it can work on the ground, highlightinga number of changes that can be made to the way that services aredesigned, commissioned and delivered. The ten stages of the T2Apathway described in this report outline the ways that those working incriminal justice can make interventions with young adults moreeffective, within the existing legislative framework.

Political will and leadership is vital, but these changes are readilyachievable now. It is time to fully recognise that young people in thetransition to adulthood require specific, tailored support through thisprocess of change, not an arbitrary cut-off from services at the time ofgreatest need.

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Bibliography

Advisory Council on the Penal System (1974), The young adult offender, London: HMSO

Barrow Cadbury Trust (2005), Commission on youngadults in the criminal justice system, London: BarrowCadbury Trust

Maruna S (2000), Making good: How ex-convictsreform and rebuild their lives, Washington: AmericanPsychological Association

McVie S (2009), ‘Criminal careers and young people’,in Barry M and McNeill F (Eds), Youth offending andyouth justice, London: Jessica Kingsley ResearchHighlights in Social Work Series

Prison Reform Trust (2011), Bromley Briefings prisonfactfile, December 2011, London: PRT

Riots, Communities and Victims Panel (2012), Afterthe riots: The final report of the Riots Communitiesand Victims Panel, London: Department forCommunities and Local Government

Sampson R and Laub J (1993), Crime in the making:Pathways and turning points through life,Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

University of Oxford (2011), Found in transition?Local inter-agency systems for guiding young adultsinto better lives: Final report of the formativeevaluation of the T2A pilots, Oxford: Centre forCriminology and Criminal Justice

Images of young people in this summary report are stills fromthe T2A film, produced by Panda Media in 2011, available towatch at www.t2a.org.uk (where all T2A publications areavailable for download).

Design and print: Creative Media Colour Ltd.

is convened and funded by:

Download all of the T2A Alliance’spublications at www.t2a.org.uk

www.barrowcadbury.org.uk

Registered Charity Number: 1115476

The Barrow Cadbury Trust is an independent, charitablefoundation, committed to supporting vulnerable andmarginalised people in society.

The Trust provides grants to grassroots voluntary andcommunity groups working in deprived communities in the UK,with a focus on the West Midlands. It also works withresearchers, think tanks and government, often in partnershipwith other grant-makers, seeking to overcome the structuralbarriers to a more just and equal society.