The UK Government is recruiting children to make legal decisions?

Hi All.

I came across this interesting article in the UK's Daily Mail. This was also reported in other national UK newspapers. It made me think that the Social Engineers are at it again.

As you may know that there is a percieved rise in anti-social behaviour amongst the wide spectrum of UK society.

The government in their wisdom, have tried various schemes like ASBO's (anti-social behaviour orders) to curb the rising tide of petty crime, violence and playing your stereo too loud? This is their lastest brain-wave.

Here is the aforementioned article.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

The article covers a new experiment by the UK government to curb the Anti-Social behaviour of the UK's youth while not addressing the causes of this increasing trend. i.e. Unemployment, Deteriorating Education System, Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Destruction of the Nuclear Family amongst other social factors.

The pilot scheme in Preston, Lancashire, will allow "peer panel" courts to rule on other children who are considered to display anti-social traits or have commited misdemenours.

I am interested in others thoughts especially from around the world to give me an outside opinion. Is this a good thing or is this a waste of time and money, or does this have sinister overtones?

Okay, I posted this thread and no response. I guess I need to be more expressive. I will ask you all a question. Is the UK government as an entity trying to perfect a total surveillance society as envisioned by George Orwell in 1984 and the eugenic/totalitarian society of Aldous Huxley in Brave New World as a blueprint to the NWO?

The reason I post this question in this thread created by myself, is that, did the nazi's in nazi germany not indocrinate the children of the society to control their elders. Is this is a sign of totalitarianism, just like Leninist/Stalinist Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany? Are we not seeing the apparatus of our enslavement being constructed around us through progressive erosion of the freedom of the individual? Please tell me what you think.

Oh I don't know about the totalitarianism .... but I do know that £487,000 could double glaze 100-150 homes, pay for a teacher for 15-20 years, equip 500 of our troopers with body armour ....

This judicial experiment seems like a dreadful waste of taxpayers money.

Nothing new there then.

We have the same program here in Anchorage, Alaska and it is in many places all over the US. It is one of the few programs that is an unqualified success. In fact my office is responsible for raising about $15,000.00 a year to give to them. Here are some stats and a LINK

* 359 trained youth in grades 7-12 served as youth court judges, attorneys, clerks and bailiffs. 365 defendants adjudicated by Juvenile Intake, including 26 children aged 9-12 referred to AYC Pre-Court. 89 adult attorneys volunteered their time to train and advise in and for court.

* $569 = expense for each Anchorage Youth Court defendant, of which they must earn and pay $50. (For comparison - $150 a day for a youth to reside in McLaughlin Youth Center, totaling $54,750 per year).

* 94% = Highest success for non-recidivism; Dept. of Justice Urban Institute Youth Court Effectiveness Study found Anchorage Youth Court the most successful of 4 youth court models used in different states. Evaluators attribute success to strong peer influence.

* Under 10 days - average time from referral to Court appearance for Anchorage Youth Court defendants.

* 75 days- average time from arrest to sanction completion for Anchorage Youth Court defendants.

* $57,539 total restitution earned and paid by defendants to victims (1996-2003) .

* 67,841 community service hours defendant have worked to repay the community for breaking its laws (1996-2003).

* 20% of Anchorage juvenile offenders are appropriate for Anchorage Youth Court.

You should embrace this idea. It is a good one.

[edit on 10/23/2007 by Blaine91555]

Thanks for both your responses, you both make good points. I had not heard of the Anchorage Alaska project. But I do still have some reservations about anything the current UK does, especially when it tries socialogical experiments.

I do find it interesting that other similar schemes elsewhere in the world are yielding positive results. Are there any other such schemes in the world apart from the UK experiment and the project in Anchorage Alaska?

We had a very similar program at my school for grades 4 (about 10 year olds +/-) through 12 (~18yo +/-) where if you violated the honor code (which is what they called the academic/disciplinary "code of laws") in any way and didn't confess, you'd have prosecution and defense advocates, a judge, and a jury selected from the offender's grade. Not only did they determine guilt, but also punishment at the end.

Luckily, they were much harsher than the school disciplinary dean would have been - the students were tougher on themselves than the administration was. If anything, wouldn't this program be more democratic than the status quo and actually the opposite of totalitarianism? Now the thugs have a true jury of their peers. From what I've seen, I'd encourage the spread of such programs.

Here is a reply for you.

Currently our jails can hold no more than 90k, if the tv's , playstations, pool tables etc disappeared then perhaps they could hold 91k.

The population now exceeds 65 million, I would say one fifth of that population would be up to no good, whether needing to commit crime to survive or just because they need a fix, need money because they are unemployable or are just a useless member of society.

So what is needed is enough prison places to hold 2 million bods, a law structure that is defined in black and white with no grey areas, for instance if you steal then 5yrs sentence, no parole no bail just jail.

Jail would be your cell, no luxuries this ain't a holiday camp, food, exercise and 22 hours in the cell.

If breaking the law carried real deterrents then the PC Brigade wouldn't have to keep bringing out these stupid ideas.

If anyone thinks this is harsh then perhaps your home has not been broken into or your car vandalised, then have the local plod tell you that if you caught the perps who did it and exacted revenge then your feet would not touch the ground all the way to jail whilst the crim got off with just another telling off.


Wolfie

Originally posted by Niall197


This judicial experiment seems like a dreadful waste of taxpayers money.

If implemented the way it is here the exact opposite is true. The Anchorage Borough saves considerable money because of this program. Not to mention the very low recidivism rate is a savings over the lifetime of an individual who instead of resorting to more crime becomes productive. If this is a similar program their is no argument you can make against it that makes any sense. It is truly a win, win scenario.

Dejaybeetoo,

Perhaps you could recommend that your Powers That Be contact the Anchorage Youth Court for information on how to make this program work? There are currently 900 similar programs in the United States and growing.

I think the few responses you have gotten are a good indicator that most people would approve. I know the program has nearly zero opponents here.

Thanks for the responses.

I can see the positives and the negatives in the programmes. I still have reservations as the government in this country have been and still are socialist in ideology. They have destroyed the fabric of the United Kindgoms Society. By the insane laws they have passed.

We can not protest within at least half a mile of parliament.

The powers that be are definately trying to supress FREEDOM of EXPRESSION and FREEDOM of THOUGHT. As they would like you to be nice simple complacent, non questioning consumers.

[edit on 29-10-2007 by djaybeetoo]