– With us, last year 69 percent of those who received a youth sentence completed it, says head of the Conflict Council in Oslo, Katinka Hartmann, to news. On a national basis, figures from the Conflict Council show that 85.5 per cent of young people completed a youth sentence in 2022. But the statistics tell little about who does not complete it or what awaits those who break the youth sentence to which they have agreed. Head of the Conflict Council in Oslo, Katinka Hartmann, says three out of ten do not complete their youth sentence in Oslo. Photo: Nora Lie / UDI – It is quite clear that more knowledge is needed about which measures in the implementation of punishment are really effective. Several of our young people have many different challenges related to drugs, poverty, institutional stays around the country and criminal networks. We are completely dependent on the good measures being found in the various municipalities and districts, says Hartmann. She says there is a need to know more about who carries out the punishment, who does not and why this is the case. Young offenders no longer end up in prison Facts about youth sentences In 2014, people under the age of 18 effectively stopped serving prison sentences. Norway currently has 8 prison places for this group in two special prisons. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children should only be imprisoned as a last resort. Norway’s response was a new type of punishment, juvenile punishment and juvenile follow-up. Juvenile punishment is used for serious or repeated crime. Youth follow-up is used in the less serious cases. Both punishments require the consent of the young person, who must then follow a plan which is the “punishment”. New rules In 2014, it was practically the end of people under the age of 18 to serve prison sentences. The answer was a new type of punishment: Juvenile punishment and juvenile follow-up. Juvenile punishment is used for serious or repeated crime. Youth follow-up is used in the less serious cases. Both punishment reactions assume that the young person has a need for follow-up and require consent from the young person, who must then follow a plan which is the “punishment”. A harsh youth environment made the school think again. The Conflict Council has been given responsibility for creating this plan in consultation with the young people themselves, as well as ensuring that it is carried out. – Are the most serious cases the most violations? Youth coordinator Katrine Salomonsen says youth punishment is not suitable for young people who do not want to change. Photo: Trond Lydersen / news – In general, it is more likely than not that someone has received a waiver of prosecution because they have stolen a car. I think that is somewhat in the cards, says youth coordinator Katrine Salomonsen in the Conflict Council. She is involved in drawing up youth plans and points as an example to a punishment that a secondary school student has followed: – This was someone who had had several serious incidents of violence and could be very angry and violent at school, says Salomonsen, who reads from the top point on the list of six measures: – Either go to school, have an internship or work every day. Must not have undocumented absences. Follow the rules for behavior at school. Do the best you can professionally. – Isn’t this normal for a completely normal student? – For a completely ordinary student, yes. But these are not quite ordinary students. There are often students who experience very little mastery in the classroom and who may find sitting in the classroom very disturbing and tiring. And who like to seek out. In addition, the young person should have at least one conversation a week with a social worker, meet an environmental worker, have a conversation with a psychologist and a conversation with a police contact every two months. – This is the execution of a sentence. That is what the youth must implement. It is part of the story that this young person has changed his life after his sentence and has not committed new crimes. Restorative meeting A large meeting, where the perpetrator met the victim, was to be central when the youth sentence was introduced. The meeting was to restore the injustice that had been committed against the victim. It would also make the perpetrator responsible. But Nordlandsforskning, which carried out a study of youth punishment on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, concluded that the meetings did not live up to expectations. At the Conflict Council in Oslo, they say that the victims who agree to meet the perpetrator are mostly left with a positive experience. – Victims in particularly violent cases tend to create such a scary picture of the person who did it. This can give them the opportunity to hear the background, hear what it is thinking and perhaps dampen the scary image a little. Our young people also get to know how what they have done has affected the victim. It is part of the restorative and crime-preventing effect we are looking for, says Salomonsen. – Is there anyone for whom the youth sentence is not suitable? – Yes, but I think that those for whom it is not suitable are those for whom the very good measures may not be found. It also has to do with one’s own motivation for change. It is not suitable for those who have no plans to make any changes at all, says Salomonsen. Mehl: – Need more knowledge news has asked the Ministry of Justice about what happens to those who do not complete the youth sentence, and to what extent they commit new crimes. Minister of Justice Emilie Mehl (Sp) does not have an answer, for now. – We need more knowledge about the consequences of breaches. We know today that it is being followed up by the conflict council. Or it will go before the court for consideration of a prison sentence, says Mehl. But she wants to make it more possible to imprison young people who commit serious crimes. – The government is now working on a new bill to make significant changes to juvenile punishment, both to make it more effective and to ensure that there are more tools for the courts in the event of violations. We will also do more research into why breaches happen and what we can do to react, says Mehl. She says the case should go before the courts if the system of juvenile punishment through the Conflict Council does not work well enough in the individual case. – I think the courts have too little leeway to be able to react well to it. That is why we want to expand the possibilities of the courts. – Expand, does that mean that they can use imprisonment to a greater extent? – Today they can use imprisonment, but there can also be other things, such as community punishment or a residence ban, a contact ban, which the court can impose in the event of a breach. Therefore, we will come up with a legislative proposal during the year which, among other things, deals with these things. – Juvenile punishment, is it really such a harsh punishment? – We must remember that these are children and young people between the ages of 15 and 18 who are in a rut that society wants them out of. For some, going to school or staying drug-free can be very demanding in itself, says Mehl, who emphasizes that it should also be possible to impose a subsidiary prison sentence. – There is a proposal that we have submitted for consultation that the court should be able to impose a prison sentence in addition to the youth sentence. It will be a tightening that emphasizes that this is also a consequence of an offence.
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3 out of 10 do not finish – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
