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Judge Wants to Seize Children of Criminals at Birth

May 28, 2013 permalink

British judge Alan Goldsack notes that a lot of public money is expended on children removed from their parents and raised in foster care. His solution? Remove children from criminals at birth and have them raised by substitute parents.

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Remove children from criminal families at birth to save them from crime, says top judge

  • Alan Goldsack QC said drastic action needed as crime runs in families
  • Recorder of Sheffield said taking children away could save thousands
  • Judge says he sees grandchildren of criminals he prosecuted in court
Alan Goldsack
Concerns: Judge Alan Goldsack claimed the children of hardened criminals should be adopted at birth

Babies born to prostitutes, drug addicts and other criminals should be adopted at birth to prevent them following their parents into jail, a leading judge has said.

Alan Goldsack QC, the Recorder of Sheffield, said it was the state’s duty to intervene to stop the ‘next generation of criminals’.

He said it was ‘frightening’ how many of the criminals he was sentencing today were the grandchildren of those he had dealt with 40 years ago.

‘Crime runs in families the same way that being a doctor, teacher or lawyer does,’ he said in an interview to mark his retirement.

‘Some people become criminals because they enjoy crime and think it’s a good way of life and if they don’t get caught they think they can have a good lifestyle.

‘But a frightening thing is the number of people I see who are the grandchildren of the people I have prosecuted and defended 40 years ago.’

The state had to ‘remove young babies from the families that are going to produce the next generation of criminals’, he said.

He added that a dysfunctional family would often have £250,000 spent on them, ‘but if we get in early and removed children we could save thousands’.

He said a ‘huge proportion’ of prisoners were a ‘product of the care system’.

He added: ‘The care system is not working as well as it should be by a long chalk. If you leave a child until they are nine or ten, you can’t do much for them at all.’

Children removed at 11 or 12 would ‘invariably end up in a children’s home’.

The 65 year-old judge made his remarks after 43 years in the legal profession. But children’s campaigners accused him of criminalising babies.

Camila Batmanghelidjh
Critical: Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the charity Kids Company, said taking children from criminal families was not the right solution

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, said: ‘This protest is directed at the wrong corner of the problem.

'If you look at the baby in their cot, they are not a criminal. Taking babies from parents because they happen to be in criminal families is not the right solution.

'We need to address the way that we work with disturbed families and children.’

Alison Worsley of Barnardo’s said the Government needed to do more to support children of prisoners.

Source: Daily Mail

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