Working with young people
Maintaining our links with law students and Faculties Bristol College of Law
District Crown Prosecutor Andrew Walters spoke to law students at Park Campus in Cheltenham on 2 March to explain the role of the CPS and its position within the Criminal Justice System.
'Getting Court' Gloucestershire
Last year Jane Gibney liaised with the High Sherriff of Gloucestershire to share CPS Schools Project materials and joined a team of curriculum designers from Gloucestershire Council's Education (just for the day!) to help develop bespoke materials on the Criminal Justice System for the countys secondary schools. The aim was to develop a programme that could be used both with young people at risk of being involved in crime and those who needed to build a general awareness of their rights and responsibilities. The aim of the course is ultimately to ensure that young people feel they are involved and have a 'stake' in society and the criminal justice system.
On 25 January, the materials, which are linked to Crown Court visits, was launched by Judge James Tabor and High Sherriff Mark Heywood at Gloucester Crown Court. The CPS's contribution was acknowledged at the event, in the course brochure and the press.
Explaining our role to young people in Truro
Prosecutor Alison May, who has been very active throughout Devon and Cornwall in working with local schools developed one of the lessons from the CPS National Schools Project and delivered it to police cadets in Truro.
"We were able to use the historic magistrates court in Truro, which are beautiful. It very much added to the impact of the mock trial session and the police cadets enjoyed it."
She also found time to deliver lessons based on the file review exercises featured in the schools project to five different AS law classes at Truro College! Quite a feat. She was then invited for a return visit to Scilly where she had given lessons last year. In addition to this, she also recently welcomed students from Poole Academy to the CPS office.
Engaging with young people in Gloucestershire via teachers!
In Gloucestershire, Jane Gibney has been liaising with a group of Citizenship teachers and the Education department along with the High Sheriff of Gloucestershire to create a new curriculum on the Criminal Justice system and individual rights and responsibilities.
Jane commented: "it was very interesting to be involved at the early drafting of a curriculum with members of the Gloucestershire-wide Citizenship teaching team. It makes sense too, for the CPS to sometimes choose to engage with schools by sharing our resources and knowledge with teachers, so that they can deliver lessons, rather than trying to deliver them ourselves. It would be lovely to do it, but resources dont make it possible for us at the moment!"
Black youth issues and the role of churches, interfaith groups and the Criminal Justice System
Jane Gibney met with church leaders, police and Interfaith Southwest at their offices in Bristol. The pastors from across the city were from black-led churches.
They expressed concerns about the high proportion of young black people in prison, undergoing stop and search and the lack of community policing. Some spoke about their own lack of trust in the criminal justice system as well as the distrust amongst young black (African Caribbean) people in their communities. They touched on gang culture and the difficulty for young people in extricating themselves from gangs, once involved.
A report, published on 26 October 2011 by the Youth Justice Board and the Inspectorate for Prisons shows that the proportion of black and other minority ethnic young men in young offender institutions (YOIs) has risen from 23% in 2006 and 33% in 2009/10 to 39% last year. Young black men now account for nearly 40% of the population of youth jails in England and Wales, according to a report by the chief inspector of prisons.
The over-representation of young black men in youth jails comes despite a sharp fall in the number of children and young people in custody that has already led to the closure of five YOIs, including a specialist unit for young women.
Engaging with young people and faith groups in the South West
On 15 November 2011, Interfaith Southwest hosted a regional conference on how agencies and voluntary sector groups could engage more effectively with young people from a diversity of cultures and faiths across the region. The shared aim of attendees was to build community cohesion and cultural understanding and to identify ways of preventing racial and religious hate crime, particularly in Devon and Cornwall where there would appear to be arise in religiously motivated hate crime.
