UK:BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown has promised to put tough "community payback" at the centre of a raft of new measures aimed at punishing and preventing knife crime, writes FRANK MILLARLondon Editor
His initiative ahead of a wider youth crime action plan, to be unveiled today, comes in the wake of another spate of fatal stabbings, which saw four people killed in 24 hours in London.
Ministers and police chiefs are rejecting suggestions of a knife-crime "epidemic" in the context of an overall fall in violent crime - while increasingly alarmed at the falling "age profile" of those using knives and at the increasing severity of the attacks.
Rejecting advice to magistrates from the Sentencing Guidelines Council suggesting that possession of a knife could be punished with a fine, Mr Brown said: "What I want to see is anybody who is using a knife go to prison."
Reiterating the "presumption to prosecute" in all cases of possession, the prime minister also spelt out tough and visible community service as part of the alternative punishment in cases where the courts deemed custodial sentences inappropriate.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith failed to impress with her weekend suggestion for "shock tactics" that could see young criminals brought face to face with the victims of their knife attacks in hospital. And Mr Brown made clear such a strategy would not be an alternative to punishment.
He also stressed his desire to see communities involved in setting the tasks to be performed by young offenders in an "intense" period for up to 300 hours community service - including on Friday and Saturday nights - that would amount to "a real restriction of that young person's liberty".
Reminding parents of their responsibility to keep their children under control, the prime minister also signalled that as many as 110,000 problem families with children deemed at risk of becoming "prolific" offenders could be targeted by the authorities as part of a radical extension of parental support by way of "parenting contracts" over the next three years.
Up to 20,000 families could face eviction if they fail to rein in troublesome offspring as part of tough family intervention projects already under way.
"The first responsibility when a child is in trouble or in danger of getting into trouble is with the parents," said Mr Brown, stressing the government's commitment to a three-pronged approach repeatedly defined as "punishment, enforcement and prevention".
Conservative leader David Cameron attempted to keep the pressure on Mr Brown, insisting: "If you are carrying a knife and you are caught, you should expect to go to prison. Plain, simple, clear."
However, Mr Brown cited the recent example of a 14-year-old boy charged with his first offence where it was not thought appropriate to send him to a young offenders' centre, and noted the same flexibility allowed to the courts in the Tory leader's speech last week defining "a presumption to prison".
Conservative shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve also accused the government of "gimmickry" yesterday, after Ms Smith told MPs she had never suggested youngsters caught up with knives should be made to visit their victims in hospitals.
On Sunday, Ms Smith said those using or threatening with knives should be sent to prison, adding: "But for others, actually what I think would be tougher is being made to face up to the implications of young people carrying knives on our streets - what it means in terms of gruesome injuries, what it could well mean to your future if you end up in prison, what it means to the families of those who actually lose people through knife crime. In my book, that is tougher than saying there's one solution and that's everybody goes to prison."
Having been derided by campaign group Mothers against Murder and Aggression for talking "a load of old tosh", Ms Smith said yesterday her proposal was for "knife referral schemes" where young offenders might meet health workers as part of a graphic awareness process facing them with the consequence of their actions.