The Charity Barnardo's has just released a report stating that children between the ages of 12 and 14 are being given custodial sentences, and has found that more than a third of them should not have been put behind bars, when judged against the Government’s own criteria. Many other reports have stated that prison sentences dont work.

Now there are many areas of concern here and it amazes me when i here that it costs £30,000 / year to imprison a youth and yet there are stuggling youth centres that cannot get funding that cost £10,000 - £15,000 / year and ususally house between 10 - 100 kids.

So now here comes the argument - do youth centres work? Well i'd have to say yes, absolutely. In particular the uniformed ones like army, Air and Sea Cadets.

Ok so going off track from the original post but maybe if we looked more at how to resolve the issues instead of how to deal with them then maybe we wouldnt have to worry about sentencing our youth. So many times you hear theres no discipline, theres no respect from the youth of today, but to be fair what the hell do they have to respect? You cant just demand respect, it has to be earnt both ways. I am so sick of hearing it wasnt like that in my day and we didnt have anything to do in our day. Except for the fact that all the green land that you probably played on when you were younger has now been turned into housing. Also there was far less social pressure as there is today. The increse in media and technology in the past tens years has alllowed the increase influx in information available which in some ways is good but in many ways bad, with everybody being able to force upon their views. Increased advertising also has put an increased pressure on society.

So what is the resolve - get involved with your local youth centre. The Cadet forces are fantastic as they offer a diverse range of activities. Also help develop self discipline, social interaction, team work and whole range of other skills, not to mention a structured routine where they wont be on the streets they will be too knacked for start.

But the problem is not the kids, the problem is the adults, the lack of respect is from todays adults, who are to lazy to get out and help the development of tomorrows generation. You would think that in the current climate that there would be an influx of volunteers but if only.

And what is not realised is that 80% of employment oppotunities are found through networking and where better to network with other adults and parents than at a youth club.