This campaign has now closed
Unlock supports people who are facing stigma, prejudice & discrimination because of their criminal record. We want to make the criminal records checking system fairer for people who are convicted when they are still children.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
There are different laws, policies & practices – including a distinct court system & different custodial institutions - for children who enter the criminal justice system. However, the criminal record system relating to childhood offences remains only a slightly tweaked version of the adult system. This means people who acquire a criminal record as a child can see this traumatic part of their lives returning to haunt them, in all sorts of unexpected ways, for the rest of their lives.
Solution
Unlock has been successful in helping to bring about some improvements to the system, but we know more change is needed. We will campaign for: • The majority of childhood offences to be sealed when sentence is completed. • All those offences to be sealed after a set period of time. • A transparent system for assessing when exceptionally serious offences become sealed. Funding from The Big Give Christmas Challenge will help us campaign to bring about these changes.
