by Dave Wiles

I want to share a brief personal response to the ridiculous idea of young people on Community Service being made to wear uniforms on the basis that I have been getting increasingly concerned about the way that young people (especially those who have got into trouble) are being portrayed, labelled and treated in our society.

We routinely display disdain and dislike of teenagers in press stories. For example, Young People Now conducted some research which found that in a given period across a wide range of media reporting 71% gave a negative view of young people. I am fearful that we are entering a period of irrational knee-jerk actions against young people, based upon biased and misleading propaganda. Another recent example of this is the banning of hoodies and baseball caps in the Blue Water Shopping Centre which the Children's Society has called a "blatant discrimination based on stereotypes and prejudices".

So what about the notion of a uniform for young offenders to wear when they are involved in community service? I think this is demeaning, humiliating and offensive and, possibly more importantly, it will not work in terms of doing anything constructive about offending. It reduces human relations to the kind of humiliating tactics used by Victorian educationalists who inflicted dunce caps on some youngsters.

If a uniform for young offenders ever becomes a reality I promise to wear the same uniform throughout my work as CEO of Frontier Youth Trust (obviously hoping very much that it becomes a fashion statement!) I will do this as an act of protest against a Government that has lost touch with the notion that young people's behaviour is more complex than the actions of 'bad' individuals who are to be castigated for their 'bad choices' and which seems intent on responding to populist media fear-factories by endorsing inhumane ideas and actions.

This Government’s responsibility under Article 37a of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that, "No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."