Steve Brine has welcomed new proposals from Conservative Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to help young offenders turn their backs on crime.
The new plans explore a radically different approach. 'Transforming Youth Custody: Putting Education at the Heart of Detention' aims to deliver value for the taxpayer, reduce reoffending and set young offenders on the path to a better life.
At present, the average cost of a youth custodial place is £100,000 a year - with some as much as £200,000 and 73% of young offenders who leave custody reoffend within a year.
Welcoming the announcement, Steve Brine, who is also a member of the influential Justice Select Committee, said: "I am delighted at this joint set of proposals from the Justice Secretary and the Education Secretary, and finally, we have recognition that reducing offending among young people is as much about education as it is about punishment.
"The good news is, the number of young people entering the criminal justice system is at its lowest for over a decade and credit should go to the work of the police, Youth Offending Teams and others who have made this happen. However, there remains a hardcore of prolific offenders and estimates suggest that nearly a third of youth crime is committed by just 5% of offenders.
"At the moment, for this hardcore, a sentence in custody is not putting a stop to their behaviour and it is very clear we cannot go on like this. These proposals are consulting on a radically different approach which aims to deliver value for us as taxpayers, reduce reoffending and set young offenders on the path to a better life.
"Local youth charities, education experts and I suspect a great many people locally will be interested in this area. Education is key to our vision, and we want to see Secure Colleges providing education in a period of detention, rather than detention with education as an afterthought."
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said: "We cannot go on just doing more of the same, pouring more money into a system that doesn't work in the hope of a different outcome. That doesn't make any sense to the taxpayer, or to the young people who we should be trying to get back on the straight and narrow."
Pictured; Justice Secretary Chris Grayling recently joined Steve Brine at the Winchester Probation Trust