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In North Yorkshire, for example, while two thirds of ASBOs were never breached, a hardcore of just 13 people accounted for 66 arrests in the last half of 2007 for breach of ASBO. That's an average of 5 times each in just 6 months.

So What's the Problem?

You've got to remember, just being in a part of town where you're not supposed to be can be a breach of your ASBO - are you really going to send someone into the prison system, just for being in the wrong street?

But if not, and they keep doing it, what DO you do?

The guidance to magistrates has plenty to say about people breaching ASBOs. The Judicial Studies Board says quite clearly, "A court should be wary of treating the breach of an ASBO as just another minor offence.听 It should be remembered that the order itself would normally have been a culmination of persistent anti-social behaviour."

At the same time, magistrates' sentencing guidelines say, "Where breaches do not involve harassment, alarm or distress, community penalties should be considered to help the offender learn to live within the terms of the ASBO."

Prisons? What Prisons?

On February 18, 2008, the Prison Officers' Association announced it had been dealing with a record number of prisoners over the weekend.

Holme House Prison in Stockton

Colin Moses, National Chairman of the POA said; 鈥淧OA members were bussing prisoners from establishment to establishment to try and accommodate almost 82,000 prisoners over the weekend.听 This policy will lead to unrest amongst prisoners and prisoners being placed in unsuitable accommodation and thus endangering the general public."

What would you do?

While ASBOs were brought in to deal with people who persistently commit the kind of minor crimes that wouldn't warrant a prison sentence, these figures show the real dilemma for the courts - what do you do with someone who consistently thumbs their nose at you, but doesn't commit any major crimes?

And some police officers in the region aren't convinced by them at all. This is what one officer, who asked not to be identified, told 91热爆 Tees.

"For example, you'll get a 15 year old who has an ASBO that says he cannot drive a car that isn't his. Well hang on, he can't drive any car. It's kind of pointless.

"If they'd just enforce the laws that already existed, we wouldn't need ASBOs. The cynical side of me thinks it's just giving the police another hoop to have to jump through to try and get criminals convicted."

"It is a useful tool for, for example, councils, who can apply for ASBOs just as well as the police can, but I've seen people come into custody for breach of an ASBO at age, for argument's sake, 18 years of age, they've had an ASBO for 2 or 3 years, and they'll have maybe 10 breaches of ASBO within that 2 or 3 year period and you're lucky if they've ever been to jail once."