UK Justice Secretary David Lammy announced his plans to ensure a 25 per cent reduction in the number of children in detention before the end of this parliamentary term. The Justice Ministry is also planning a consultation on lifetime criminal records for those under 18, new youth intervention courts and tougher parental accountability measures for children involved in crime. For Lammy, the reforms were linked to his personal experience as he grew up in Tottenham during the 1980s. Prison was always a threat for him as a child as were many black boys like him who found themselves in the criminal justice system due to truancy from schools and committing minor crimes.He said, “Growing up in Tottenham in the 1980s, my greatest fear was being jailed. It may seem irrational, but in reality it was the fate of many young black boys like me”, as quoted by the Guardian.“You saw it happen gradually at first. People missed school, got into minor trouble and started hanging out with the wrong crowd. No one stepped in to pull them back. For us, going to prison wasn’t shocking or far-fetched. It felt almost inevitable. I could have been one of them, but was lucky enough to get a scholarship to a state boarding school, which gave me an outlet that others never had,” he adds.According to Lammy, short-term detention makes children and adolescents more likely to commit crimes in the future. He said, “For the most serious crimes, custody will always be necessary to protect the public; that will never change.”“But for many children, even a small shock inside can cause lasting damage, disrupting the most formative years of their lives and sometimes exposing them to greater violence and criminal influence.”The Ministry of Justice intends to allocate £15 million of funding each year to special teams that will support children who are at risk of becoming involved in criminal activity. It is feared that introducing more community sentences and reducing custodial remands will reduce the youth prisoner population by 20 per cent.These measures would include criminalizing child exploitation against adults who incite children to commit crimes. These pilot youth interventions will be delivered through court judges and support workers, who will develop individual plans.Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza supported the proposals. “I have been consistently clear about the need to reform the youth justice system,” she said.“We must create an approach that keeps children safe, keeps them away from crime wherever possible and prioritizes meaningful behavior change.”