Regeneration and rehabilitation

In the spirit of joined-up thinking I have been doing some thinking that I think may join up, at least I think so.

It involves the architectural zeal of Kevin McCloud and the musical determination of that chap who goes into schools and forms choirs out of raw talent, overcoming prejudice and indifference on the way. It also involves the harrowing drama Fiona's Story broadcast recently, about the wife of a man prosecuted for downloading child pornography. As well as the intelligent debates about the relationship between punishment and rehabilitation that was aired last week on the Today programme. All this is also a ringing endorsement about what is good about broadcasting.

Castleford regeneration

The real issue that got me was watching Kevin McCloud's programme on Channel 4 about the regeneration of Castleford. I only saw the first one and the last 10 minutes of the final one, but what it seemed to demonstrate is that environment is at the heart of people's hearts. When the immediate environment is poor, neglected, vandalised and hard it makes people feel despondent, worthless, negative and selfish. It is a perfect breeding ground for crime '“ low level but sapping all the same, and no doubt for some, leads onto bigger and more serious offending, particularly drugs.

However, put in a sense of worth, pride, responsibility and community, and the picture can change. Money and opportunity will arrive, people will not tolerate others spoiling the place, people feel happier about themselves and where they live. A sense of fulfilment has a considerable effect '“ somebody once told me that in the weeks after underdogs Sunderland beat mighty Leeds United in the 1973 FA Cup Final shock, productivity in Sunderland shot up enormously.

Then there is the singing '“ when the school choirs come together out of nothing and children who chose to be or had found themselves on the margins came back into the fold, participated in something creative, beautiful, and not illegal, again there was a sense of fulfilment, excitement and, frankly, the thrill of the possibilities about being human.

Then crime '“ in Fiona's Story we observe the effect of a crime that is innate within the offender. But much crime is not. Much crime must spring from the lack of fulfilment and the poor environments in which many people live. Last week Jack Straw repeated the New Labour phrase, 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' and he is (or should be) absolutely right to repeat it. But it must also be actioned. It is justifiable to give the dangerous lengthy sentences '“ there are some criminals from whom we simply need protecting. If we can be tough on the causes of crime however, we need to be doing a McCloud and starting choirs.

Motivated to achieve

Resources placed in these areas '“ schools, families and the environment are what can make the difference, because they make people feel better about themselves and motivated to achieve, and turn them away from the debilitating nihilism of criminal conduct.

I have probably written this before, but in my time defending adults and young people '“ particularly young people '“ it is very rare not to find, sometimes after a time, that there is something likeable and promising about the person. The key is to unlock it.

Returning to the subject of child pornography '“ what then do we do about the innate crime? Do we decide to tackle different crimes in different ways? There is an ongoing argument that drug crime should be addressed by acknowledging that drug use is never going to go away, and that we should decriminalise it as much as possible and supply addicts with drugs on a medicinal basis in order to cut out the offending that goes with it, allow monitoring and eventually steps to rehabilitation.

Tackling innate crime such as child abuse and child pornography is an enormous task. It requires a basic rewiring of the offender's personality. It is a secretive, furtive crime. It crosses all classes and wealth bands. The internet makes it so easy. It can have its roots in the offender having been abused as a child themselves. By its nature it is potentially self-perpetuating, and its impact and damage is widespread and cataclysmic, not just for the victims. It cannot be shrugged off.

Joined-up thinking might allow us to approach crime not as a homogenous entity, but as an animal that has many different parts '“ some preventable, some curable in the sense of rehabilitation, some plain inevitable that require basic deterrent and punishment. If we spent a lot now on regeneration, education and rehabilitation, we might find that in the future offending is significantly reduced, and we are left more with a rump of crime that comes from within, whatever the circumstances, rather than a vast pile of offending that we could have avoided altogether. Then we can address that. I have no idea how to prevent child abuse related crime. There must be something that can be done.

All of this sounds so expensive, the voters may say. But the great thing about regeneration and education is that everybody gets to have a good time '“ and as for rehabilitation, it is always going to be cheaper avoiding the crime in the first place than clearing up the mess afterwards.

The only problem is that we lackeys might be out of a job.