journalism

Screenwriter and author set his new drama, Injustice, inside a young offenders institution after visiting many of them.

Anthony Horowitz, the screenwriter and bestselling author of the Alex Rider children's books, has criticised policy on young offenders, calling the current regime "a bizarre way of wasting money" and pressing for more community resources for teenagers.

The creator of Foyle's War has set part of his new ITV drama, Injustice, inside a young offenders institution, after visiting a number as part of literacy projects.

"The people who work in these institutions by and large do a good job," Horowitz said. "But the system itself is, in my mind, a bizarre way of wasting money, given that the cost of keeping a young offender in prison for a year is about double that of sending them to Eton.

"My suggestion would be a great deal more money spent on youth clubs and places for young people to go in their communities, and earlier intervention by all parties – by social workers, youth offending teams, by the authorities."

Few young people are well served by such institutions, where they are away from their families, the writer said. "People don't really have an understanding of how tough they can be."

Horowitz said he found himself questioning why his hugely successful books about a reluctant teenage spy, Alex Rider, were not being read by more young people – and why reading was, as the author sees it, the preserve of a lucky minority of children.

"Reading books doesn't make you a good person," he said. "But it does mean that you're in an environment that will let you discuss things. I believe that books do have a part to play in preventing criminality."

The author also said pupils did not have time to read away from the curriculum and that school libraries were under-resourced.

"There's no time to give children to read just for pleasure," Horowitz said.

"Reading not only to understand punctuation or what the writer is intending, but for the pleasure of the story is clearly important. But the curriculum doesn't allow for that."

Injustice, which begins on Monday, follows a criminal barrister and his wife, who works with young offenders.

Horowitz said he aimed not for polemic but to write a thriller that surprises people.

"Too much TV drama you can sort of see the way it's going to go and guess the ending," he said.

"TV drama underestimates its audience at its peril. There's a huge audience for simplistic, fast entertainment.

"But there's also a huge audience out there who do expect more from their dramas."