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Bridging the Gap's Director, James Stevens-Turner, has been asked to play an active role in the Michael Sieff Foundation Conference entitled "Young People in prison: Prevention, Policy and Practice", at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, 4-6th September 2002.

Please contact James using the contact us link at the bottom of the page if you would like to help or attend the conference. Here are some further details:

More teenagers are jailed in England and Wales than in any other Western
European country. Moreover, 17 out of 20 children released from UK Young
Offenders Institutions are re-convicted of an offence within two years. Many
young offenders say upon release from a YOI, that all they learnt inside
were better ways of committing crime without getting caught. The situation
is a serious one.

This conference will address the problems underlying the current system of
dealing with young offenders.
* How do we prevent children from being given a custodial sentence?
* How do we deal with young people in prison, and how are prison officers
trained?
* How can the prison and child welfare system be reformed?
* What is needed to ensure that children and teenagers are not released into
the same situation as that which they came from?

This conference will bring together government officials, members of the
police, social and probation services, children's charities and judges, in
order to discuss the above issues in an open and frank way under Chatham
House rules. Throughout the conference, participants will have ample time to
engage in discussion groups on a variety of relevant topics, drawing upon
remarks given by distinguished and expert speakers, with a view to producing
recommendations at the end of the conference. These will, as a report, be
given to Ministers,, officials and practitioners who are committed to
improving the youth criminal justice system in Britain.

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