THE Howard League’s review of the Jersey youth justice system has been described as an ‘apocalyptic’ document.

Anyone taking the trouble to read the whole report on the league’s findings with an open mind will discover that that is not an accurate description of its content.

It is certainly true that the review is critical of practices and policies that were once or still are prevalent in the Island, but its whole tone is measured, balanced and reasonable.

It is also true that the Howard League’s initial position – set out clearly in a section entitled Underlying Principles – meant that its review team was always going to conclude that almost any level of youth detention was going to be unacceptable.

However, although the review recommends fundamental revisions of present policies – such as the immediate ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, and the appointment of a minister with lead responsibility for children – there is likely to be little resistance to its conclusions. They match objectives which a great many States Members, children’s welfare professionals and ordinary Islanders would regard as desirable.

Meanwhile, those who insist on characterising the review as utterly damning will want to overlook the praise it extends to certain aspects of Island practice, notably the parish hall inquiry, which, it says, serves as an effective means of diverting young people from the criminal justice system.

Such critics will, on the other hand, dwell on the notorious ‘grand prix’ system, a method of enforcing discipline which should never have been seen as acceptable and which the Howard League considers to have been illegal. But that system is now a thing of the past, though it is surely significant that it was still in use when the person who commissioned the review, Senator Stuart Syvret, was in charge of Health and Social Services.

The Senator can certainly be credited with launching an independent and insightful inquiry into youth justice, but just why it took him so long to form the impression that an unacceptable regime was being run on his watch remains an enduring mystery.