• Text size
  • Send this article to a friend
  • Print this article

Short jail sentences lock us into repeated cycles of crime

“I got the jail, and my granny went to court and got a four-week trial to keep her house…”

These are the words of “Hutchie”, a young man living in one of the most deprived parts of the east end of Glasgow. The description of his plight has had a deep and lasting impact upon my views of youth justice practice in Scotland.