Personally glimpsing personal horror
On Friday, I sat in on a meeting between a GP, a specialist police officer and a young man with significant problems. He came from a local wholly dysfunctional family, immersed in substantial abuse and criminality. He had been a prolific offender to feed a heroin addiction costing about £65 per day. It ruined his life. He is on methadone and diazepan but still buys a limited quantity of heroin from time to time. He has been warned that this is life threatening. He is struggling to cope with household bills. Mercifully, he is off crime.
Incredibly he was encouraged by a bank to open an account and was given a credit card. That pushed him into overspending. The GP and the police officer were helping him on every level. It was moving and yet very depressing; it was part of a focused crime relief effort.
Drugs are the root cause of so much youth crime. Throwing people into jail will achieve little if not complemented by specific educational, health, crime reduction and rehabilitation objectives. We fail to get a grip on this at our peril.