Background
On 27 June 2002 the Executive launched a 10-point Action Plan for dealing with the problem of young offenders in Scotland. One of the commitments made in the Action Plan was to look at the feasibility of establishing a Youth Court in Scotland to tackle 16-17 year old persistent young offenders. The December 2002 recommendation of the Feasibility Group was that a Youth Court would be possible under existing Scottish law, and proposed a model to be located within Hamilton Sheriff Court.
The Hamilton Youth Court was established in June 2003. The youth court targets the 16 - 17-year-old age group with flexibility to deal with 15-year-olds in certain circumstances. It has three distinctive features:
- A fast track process is used to deal with the young offenders. Fast tracking ensures young offenders make it into court quickly. In the majority of cases Youth Court alleged offenders are making their first appearance in court within ten days of the date the crime was committed.
- Designated sheriffs to share the work in the youth court and provide consistent supervision of each young offender that comes to the court. Young offenders under the previous system perhaps saw a Sheriff for a few minutes before sentence was passed, after which the court no longer had any dealings with them. Under the youth court, the dedicated Sheriff continues to have oversight of the offender's performance, allowing for sentences to be amended as necessary. The youth remains accountable to the court for his or her actions and behaviour. This ongoing relationship helps ensure young offenders receive the most appropriate treatment and are encouraged to address offending behaviour.
- Roll-up of pre-existing charges in order that the young offender is treated appropriately and simultaneously for all alleged crimes committed in the same period. This ensures the youth is made to face the consequences of all their actions at once, rather than relying on separate sentencing over a drawn out period. As a result, the number of guilty pleas emerging from the Hamilton Youth Court is unusually high, at around 75% to date.
Evaluation
Following the success of the Hamilton pilot, a second Youth Court has was established within Airdrie Sheriff Court in June 2004. Both pilots are being continuously and independently evaluated. The initial Hamilton six month evaluation report, published in the summer of 2004, can be accessed using the above link. The final evaluation report on Hamilton Youth Court was published on 15 June 2005 and can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/05/26105519/55205. As a result of this evaluation Ministers agreed to extend the lifetime of the Hamilton pilot by a year to allow a decision to be taken on both Youth Courts at the same time.
A final evaluation report will be published in the summer of 2006. This report will inform Ministers' decisions about whether or not the Youth Court model, or aspects of it, could usefully be introduced to othe parts of the country.
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