WALTHAM FOREST: Some youngsters believe prison provides 'easy life' (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAM FOREST: Some youngsters believe prison provides 'easy life'

9:19am Monday 29th September 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(1)

By Claire Hack »

PRISON provides an ‘easy life’, according to teenagers asked about their attitudes to the criminal justice system.

A report presented at the Community Safety Board (CSB) meeting on September 24 stated that members of the Youth Independent Advisory Group did not see “doing time” as a deterrent to committing crimes.

A 17-year-old boy from Walthamstow was quoted as saying: “Jail is an easy life - someone makes your dinner and brings it to you, you can use a free gym every day and most prisons have playstations and football teams now too.”

And other young people said they saw prison as an “easy option” where money was no longer a problem and they could escape life on deprived estates.

“If you live in Beaumont (Estate), you can only stay in Beaumont so it’s like a prison anyway,” an 18-year-old boy from Leyton said.

Discussions also suggested young people in the borough are constantly afraid of crime and victimisation, which could lead to involvement in crime.

An 18-year-old girl from Cathall in Leytonstone said: “On the streets, you live by the motto ‘kill or get killed’ - if you don’t, you’re stupid.

“If you’re not scared, you’re stupid, because then you’re not prepared.”

The majority of the young people involved in the YIAG also had friends or relatives who were either in prison or had been in prison and they no longer saw it as “the last realm of bad people in society”.

It was also found that they viewed reporting crime as “snitching” and they did not trust police to handle reports appropriately even if they were made.

“I was stabbed five times and the police turned up when I was doped out on the hospital bed, trying to ask me questions. There was no sign of them when I actually need them,” a 17-year-old boy from Leyton said.

Speaking at the CSB meeting in response to fears over these perceptions, consultation manager Mark Yeadon said: “This was the same reaction from a lot of people that had different perceptions or expectations.

“These opinions exist and they were strong amongst some of our young people who have had exposure to the criminal justice system.”

The YIAG engages with young people aged between 14 and 21 from across the borough and from various ethnic backgrounds.

It aims to find out about their perceptions of the police and community safety issues.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(1)