Spain has a markedly different attitude to crime committed by children and young people and how best to deal with it.
The minimum age of criminal responsibility in Spain is 14. Children younger than 14 who commit an offence fall under the responsibility of social services. The maximum sentence for those who commit an offence when they are 14 or 15 years old is five years. This rises to eight years for 16- or 17-year-olds.
For multiple or serious offences, prison sentences of 15 years or more can be imposed.
Criminal records are wiped when young people turn 18.
POLICY AND REGULATION
By law, youth detention centres in Spain are run by the public sector or not-for-profit organisations to ensure children and young people receive maximum benefit from the funds allocated to their care and rehabilitation. This also applies in France, Germany and Holland.
Regional administrations in Spain (similar to county councils) have sole responsibility for placing children, always within their own region. This decentralised structure makes it easier to establish strong relationships with decision makers. If an administration is lacking in resources in one area, they study the possibility of resolving the situation by creating that resource within their own region, rather than outsourcing to another. This means children are placed in centres which are closer to their homes, enabling greater opportunities for successful integration back into the community.
In Spain, the vision of the judiciary regarding sentencing is primarily re-educational. Sentences are individualised, depending on the offence and on their social, psychological and schooling needs, and are linked to the child's progression. The judiciary assumes responsibility for overseeing rehabilitation too, communicating with the centre and supervising programmes.
Case management responsibility rests with the service provider. This eradicates the need for social workers to spend time and resources travelling to out-of-region supervisions, as this work is carried out by health and care professionals based in the detention centres, and supervised by judges, prosecutors and regional administrations.
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Spanish society's perception of the purpose of detention has progressed towards an educational and rehabilitation approach. However, there are still divergent points of views in the country. Some people think that deprivation of liberty in juvenile institutions should not exist as a sentence applicable to young people, while others think these same centres should have punishment as their main focus rather than education and rehabilitation.
It is widely acknowledged that rehabilitation takes time, and children in Spain are only sentenced to detention if their crime is deemed serious enough to warrant a custodial term of such length that rehabilitation efforts can be effective. Children are held responsible for their offences and the main focus is to make them understand why they are responsible and to integrate them into the community without reoffending.
PRACTICE
Not-for-profit providers such as Diagrama Foundation run re-educational centres in Spain. Staff are trained to be actively involved in the education of young people, whether they are teachers, social educators, security officers, caterers, maintenance staff or administrators. This approach embeds learning from breakfast to bedtime, enhancing academic, personal and social development.
Re-education centres provide cognitive and emotional support. As well as being provided with social education, children in the centres receive an average of 30 hours of formal education every week and are encouraged to achieve additional qualifications in sports and leisure activities, and participate in schemes similar to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
The focus is on re-education to rehabilitate. Staff are highly qualified (social educators, social workers, psychologists and teachers will all be at degree-level educated or equivalent), but the service costs significantly less than in the UK, because staffing ratios are lower than UK secure children's homes and secure training centres.
There is also a strong ethos of rewarding good behaviour with earned privileges and responsibilities.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE UK
By David McGuire, chief executive, Diagrama Foundation
The basics of the systems in the UK and Spain are not that dissimilar. The difference is in the implementation. No new legislation would be needed to implement Diagrama's methodology in England and Wales, but there needs to be a cultural shift, not least in the perception of children who offend. Other changes that would be needed include:
- The perception of the purpose of custody - becoming more receptive to the importance of rehabilitation and education, and recognising the need for a highly skilled workforce.
- Shifting from corporate to not-for-profit providers - removing profit from the focus will improve quality.
- The regionalisation of facilities to allow children to be placed within their own area, avoiding disconnection of support and improving integration in the community.
- Moving away from the risk-adverse culture that restricts innovation and outcomes.
- A united multi-disciplinary approach, with professionals from government departments, the NHS, judiciary and Ofsted working alongside providers.
- A more flexible system of sentencing and case management.
Following Charlie Taylor's review of the youth justice system in the UK we are seeing some of these changes already being examined.
