THERE was once a slogan: "Crime - together we can crack it." Our front page story today tells how the judicial system is failing young people who are on the verge of a career of crime. Because there are not enough custodial places available for them, children are ending up in adult prisons alongside hardened lifers.

Although this may in some cases prove a salutory lesson for the juvenile, as a general practice it is only likely to further destabilise teenagers who are already teetering on the brink.

But custodial places are the top end of the system, when things have already gone wrong, when crimes have already been committed.

What about the bottom end of the system, before crimes have been committed, before innocent people have become victims?

The 16-year-old Darlington girl in question has a history of drinking and violence and had been drinking when she robbed another girl. So from where, over the past couple of years, has she got the drink that has given her such a history?

What are her parents/carers/guardians doing to make sure this child doesn't regularly get her hands on drink, and what shops are breaking the law by selling to a youngster - or not being careful enough to stop it being passed onto her by her older acquaintances?

The top end of the system deserves criticism for not providing enough places to pick up the pieces, but the root causes of the breakdown are on the streets and in the shops that we all use. Unless we all work together - state and individuals - crime will never be cracked.

Wasted energy

IT IS sad that the green-ness of the Government has become a political battle about Environment Minister Michael Meacher's personal standing.

Practically all of Europe is under water this August, and anyone who has been caught in the torrential downpours that have saturated, and flooded, the North-East and North Yorkshire in recent weeks knows that these storms are not normal - not even for an English summer.

If half of the energy which has been devoted to the make-up of Britain's delegation to the Earth summit had been devoted to real work on environmental issues, we might be making some progress on why so many of our homes are becoming so regularly engulfed by water.

On the right foot

ONE swallow doesn't make a summer; one win doesn't make a season. But congratulations to Darlington FC.

The club is too important to the town for it to be overtaken by rancour and bitterness, so it is to be hoped that Saturday's good opening day win will set the tone for a calmer and more successful season than last year.

Sunderland, who might also approach the kick-off with trepidation, will hopefully follow suit next weekend.