Examination of Witnesses (Questions 129
- 139)
TUESDAY 19 DECEMBER 2006
JASON LORD
COVER, HAYLEY
LITTEK, DEXTER
PADMORE, LEON
SIMMONDS, BIANCA
WAITE AND
JULIA WOLTON
Q129 Chairman: Good morning. Thank
you very much for coming this morning. We are really grateful
to you. As you know, we are having an inquiry into the involvement
of young black people in the criminal justice system and we have
had a number of sessions with people, like you have, coming to
give evidence to us. The Committee has also been around the country
visiting young people in different cities, and we will be doing
that again the New Year, but we thought it was really important
to have people like yourselves to come and give evidence to us
here on the record for our inquiry. Just as a handling point,
with six witnesses we will not, in the hour we have got, be able
to let every person in on every single question, otherwise we
will not get past the first couple of questions. The opening questions
I will direct to all of you, but after that, if somebody asks
a question that you particularly want to answer, would you indicate
and we will bring you in. Otherwise Members of the Committee might
direct the questions to a particular individual or a couple of
people, but we will see how it goes. It is all quite informal
anyway. To explain for the record, I am John Denham, I chair the
Committee. What I would like is for each of you to give your full
name for the record and then we will start the question session.
Dexter, would you like to go first?
Dexter: Dexter Padmore.
Leon: Leon Simmonds.
Hayley: Hayley Littek.
Julia: Julia Wolton.
Bianca: Bianca Waite.
Jason: Jason Cover.
Q130 Chairman: Can I start with a very
direct question. Obviously we are talking about young people involved
with the criminal justice system. I wonder if each of you could
explain, very briefly, what your own involvement with crime or
the criminal justice system has been. What sort of things have
you been involved in and what sort of experience can you bring
to the Committee this morning? Can I start with you, Dexter, and
work our way along.
Dexter: I have been through YOT
and prison.
Q131 Chairman: What sort of offences
did you get involved in?
Dexter: Robbery.
Q132 Chairman: Leon.
Dexter: Yes, I have been involved
in certain offences like robbery, but I have not been to prison
or nothing like that.
Q133 Chairman: Hayley.
Hayley: I have been arrested before.
I have not been to prison, but I know other people's experiences.
Q134 Chairman: What sort of things
did you get into trouble for?
Hayley: I was arrested for assaulting
a police officer.
Q135 Chairman: Although, as you say,
you have not been convicted of that. Okay. Bianca.
Bianca: I had various occasions
years ago of involvement with the police and I have been arrested
but I have not had no convictions. Everything was dropped.
Q136 Chairman: Jason.
Jason: I have been on probation
and in prison.
Q137 Chairman: For what sort of things?
Jason: Robbery.
Q138 Chairman: You know that our
inquiry is about young black people in the criminal justice system,
and that is not because black people are the only people who do
crime, but if you look at the figures a lot of black people end
up in different parts of the criminal justice system. Do you think,
from your own experience, there are particular things happening
to you or to your community or the young people you know which
is leading to this larger number of people getting involved in
trouble with the law? Bianca.
Bianca: Yes. There are things
like education that is lax in number and youths that get kicked
out of school on a regular basis, which obviously leaves them
with nothing to do, and they are on the streets 24/7. They have
too much time on their hands, so that leads to crime alone.
Q139 Chairman: So exclusions from
school. Hayley, do you have a view on that?
Hayley: Yes, basically what Bianca
is saying. There are not enough youth clubs and things to do after
school. Young black people do tend to get kicked out of school
and excluded from school for petty reasons, which does not really
make sense, and once that happens they have got no support. The
same as when they go to prison, they do not have no support after
that, they do not have the right support to do something positive
with themselves.
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