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. This young man was given a short prison sentence in 2008 as a result of convictions that stemmed from his involvement in gang violence. In turn, his grandmother was threatened with eviction from her home because of Hutchie’s sentence.

Within months of his release from prison, Hutchie had re-offended and is now serving a second prison sentence. My interview with him took place between his two sentences

and formed part of a larger research study into youth gangs and the impact that current youth justice strategies have on those young people living in Glasgow’s most deprived communities. It is fair to say that Hutchie’s card is now firmly marked and his family has been demonised. And, sadly, he is only 19.

The thorny issue of prison sentencing arrangements in Scotland has again come to the fore, with battle lines being drawn in the Scottish Parliament over a proposed new criminal justice Bill.

On the one hand, the Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, argues that short sentences of six months or less should be resisted since three-quarters of those released from such sentences go on to re-offend within two years. On the other, Labour’s justice spokesman, Richard Baker, claims that Mr MacAskill is taking a “soft touch” approach which will serve only to weaken the criminal justice system and the punitive impact on offenders.

The fundamental issues under­pinning this policy debate become even more critical when we place them within the context of young offenders. When we compare ourselves to other European countries, it is fair to say that the UK’s youth justice policy and practice is still somewhat punitive in nature.

In England and Wales, we lock up more young people than in any other country in Europe, and punitive interventions such as anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) and curfews often hamper access to social services by the very youngsters who are most in need of them.

Although the Scottish youth justice system was formally grounded on a welfare-based ethos, the release of the Anti-Social Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004 changed this somewhat.

The terms of the Act, which came into force under the former Labour and Liberal Democrat administration at Holyrood, included the extension of Asbos to 12-15-year-olds and electronically monitored curfews to those under 18 years of age.

In more recent years, the coercive elements underpinning the New Labour agenda have been resisted by social workers, civil liberty groups and Scottish police forces.

Indeed, the launch of a youth strategy by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) highlighted the crucial nature of building relationships with young people. Following the Scottish parliamentary elections in May 2007, the SNP government initiated a national consultation with interest groups and young people and created a more balanced approach towards anti-social behaviour, with more of an emphasis on prevention, intervention and rehabilitation, rather than an exclusionary focus on enforcement.

However, despite this new approach to the creation of community safety, my recent research with young offenders illustrates that, in practice, some of the punitive nature of New Labour’s agenda remains.

In addition to Hutchie’s experiences, several of the other young men I worked with were on curfews and Asbos when I met them. These temporal and spatial restrictions impacted negatively on young people’s opportunities for employment, the quality of their family lives and their levels of self esteem.

As one young man explained:

“This curfew’s makin’ me and my ma argue more … because there’s nowhere to go.”

For others, such as 17-year-old James, short-term prison sentences led to repeat offences and the constant threat of being caught up in more serious crime. He told me with some candour: “My family think … I’ll end up doin’ a murder … and I’ll end up in jail for a life sentence.”

Instead of supporting delinquent development through punitive interventions, we could benefit from drawing upon the welfare-based culture found in corporatist societies such as France and Germany, or social democratic ones such as Sweden and Finland. In these countries, a strong focus on restorative justice measures enables more young people to avoid the cycle of incarceration and repeat offending and supports them in beginning to desist from crime.

It is my hope that the SNP government wins the battle to include a provision in the new criminal justice Bill which would enable courts to have a presumption against sentencing of six months or less and to replace these sentences with community service.

I also hope that we can reach a point where Asbos and curfews can be used less in a random way, since the punitive nature of these restrictions can be overly onerous and create unnecessary additional pressures on families.

In a wider sense, we urgently need the Scottish Government to make a commitment to provide

more funding towards early intervention approaches and diversionary initiatives in schools, youth organisations and local communities which will support young people in resisting crime. Instead of demonising young people who are already offenders,

we also need to offer them the support that will prevent their offending from becoming more persistent. For those young lads like Hutchie and James, their future depends upon such an approach.

Ross Deuchar is a senior lecturer in applied education and social research at Strathclyde University, and author of Gangs, Marginalised Youth and Social Capital (2009, Trentham Books).