UK Edition
Teenage thugs should face 'harsher' prison sentences, Met Police chief Cressida Dick suggests
The worst teenage criminals should face tougher prison sentences to deter other youngsters from turning to crime in the first place, Britain's top police officer has suggested.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told prison reform campaigners to consider "harsher and more effective" jail terms for teenage thugs when other approaches do not work.
The head of the UK's largest police force warned that trying to avoid sending young people to prison had left "an increasing number" of teenagers "simply not fearful of how the state will respond to their actions".
In a speech to the Howard League for Penal Reform, she is reported to have said: "They don't see imprisonment as particularly likely or a serious threat and it does not in any sense deter them from criminal activity.
"At what point does the state prioritise its duty to protect the public and ensure that young people could see the criminal justice system as something that will catch up with them?"
Ms Dick cited the case of a 16-year-old in London who had 42 offences to his name, but had not served a single day in jail.
She called for "more imaginative" resolutions, but added in comments reported in the Daily Mail: "Should we couple that with harsher, more effective sentencing...where it is clear other approaches are no longer working, with custodial sentences that do actually deter people?"
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League, said it was "unusual" for a police officer to comment on areas such as sentencing, and said the Metropolitan Police had had "great success" at dealing with children in the community.
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