Welcome to another week.

Home Secretary Theresa May has announced an intention to create specialised schools for what she calls troubled children, which would be set up and run by the police and crime commissioners with a view to increasing commissioners’ powers into youth justice, probation and court services.

The idea behind the new schools is to help prevent children from entering a life of crime and would have a crime-specific curriculum.

But not everyone thinks this is a good idea. Sara Ogilvie, policy officer for human rights group Liberty, said the new plan was ‘a sure-fire way to estrange troubled children and fast-track them into the criminal justice system.’

And Researching Reform also happens to agree.

So, what do you think? Would this type of school be able to offer vulnerable children a positive way to stay out of trouble and a beneficial and nurturing environment or would it alienate these children further, and allow for a culture in these schools to develop, not dissimilar to the current culture we see inside the criminal justice system? 

Many thanks to Dana for alerting us to this news item.