BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast. On Monday the 18th of May,

the Justice Secretary ignored the row over the Labour leadership and instead concentrated on

his proposals to overhaul youth justice in England and Wales.

The Labour family is in a state of domestic conflict.

Not all family members like to air their troubles in public,

so in the Commons the Justice Secretary David Lemmy concentrated strictly on other things,

like the very real family trouble that can push young people into crime.

Their lives shaped by instability, by trauma and often by neglect.

The kind of childhood that most of us in this house could barely imagine.

David Lamy was launching a plan to reform youth justice in England and Wales

with an emphasis on tackling problems early

in life. He said custody would always be needed for the most dangerous offenders, but he wanted

to see fewer short sentences. Instead, an emphasis on electronic monitoring and rehabilitation,

more money for services to help children at risk of offending and then

there are the parents.

We'll also strengthen and expand the use of parenting orders which can compel parents to

address their child's behaviour including attending counselling or guidance sessions and if they they do not act, they will face penalties.

His conservative shadow, Nick Timothy, wondered if that meant locking them up.

And was the government really going to stop punishing certain kinds of crime committed by people under 18?

Because he argued, youngsters often started small

and moved on to worse things.

...