The number of young people being placed in juvenile justice centres has skyrocketed in recent years, with an Institute of Health and Welfare report finding that the number of young Australians being detained has reached a four year high. What’s even more disturbing is that 65% of these young people are on remand, which means they haven’t been convicted yet. In effect, this means that innocent young people are being kept in detention because there is a lack of alternative accommodation.
Populations in detention centres are becoming younger, and offenders are being locked up for less serious crimes. This is partly a result of police targeting young people and the newly toughened bail laws in NSW, which makes it harder for young people to apply for bail. The amendments mean everyone accused of a crime has only one shot at getting bail. If they are knocked back, or if they break bail conditions, they can’t reapply.
These laws are having a disastrous effect on young people, as they are more likely to break bail conditions than adults. Young people’s conditions often include strict curfews that they have to stick to. But many of these young people break curfews because they don’t want to return to violent homes, transport is difficult and many don’t have responsible parents to enforce the bail conditions.
This one-strike-you’re out policy has resulted in juvenile justice centres experiencing severe overcrowding. The Sun Herald has reported that young people have been sleeping on mattresses on the floor and are being held in segregation rooms normally only used as punishment cells. Older detainees are often moved to adult prisons, contrary to court orders.
Even the Department of Juvenile Justice admits changes to the Bail Act are behind the "surge in the number of young people in custody" (along with tougher policing). It says that the numbers on remand have "increased substantially over the past five months …"
According to an August article in The Age, children as young as 11 have been locked up in juvenile detention centres around Australia. Katrina Wong from the Youth Justice Coalition condemned the recent changes to juvenile justice laws, saying “[i]t offends a well recognised principle when dealing with young offenders that there should be a focus on rehabilitation and diverting them away from the juvenile justice system.”
What makes this spike in detention centre numbers even more frustrating is that detaining a young person has been shown to be an ineffective deterrent for further illegal behaviour. For young people who have done jail time, 65.6% will reoffend.
A number of other measures for dealing with young offenders have been shown to be more effectve in rehabilitation as well as being cheaper. Multi-systemic therapy addresses risk factors associated with juvenile offending, such as drug use and poor school performance, and aims to support and empower parents and young people. The therapy is currenly being trialled in Western Australia, but overseas it has been shown to be effective, with some countries showing a 25-70% reduction in offending.
Young adult criminal conferencing is for offenders aged 18-25 years of age. The offender gets the chance to defend themselves, but also to hear from the victim about the repercussions of their crime. The aim is for the victim and offender to reach a consensus on appropriate penalties, such as working for the victim, community service or repaying money.
Similar to this but targeted to young Indigenous offenders, circle sentencing is an alternative sentencing court for Aboriginal offenders which endeavors to empower Aboriginal people to address these issues in their local community, and involves deciding on a sentence that is tailored to the offender.
But why should the general population care about the people behind the barbed wire or their incarceration arrangements? Jane Sanders, the principal solicitor with the Shopfront Youth Legal Service in Sydney, believes that society needs to care about how young offenders will affect the community after they are released. Sanders asks the question: “Would you like to be sexually assaulted by a very angry 30 or 40 year old who has come out of jail, or would you rather somebody who has had a decent chance at rehabilitation come out of custody and no longer be such a serious risk to their community? What kind of state are they going to be in when they’re released?”
How do I know this?
Carrick, Damien “Juvenile Offenders and adult prisons”, The Law Report, 26 August 2008. www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2008/2345264.htm
Horrin, Adele, “Judge rules youths be taken out of adult jail”, Sydney Morning Herald, www.smh.com.au/news/
national/judge-rules-youths-be-taken-out-of-adult-jail/2008/09/19/1221331207054.html September 20, 2008.
“Youth detention falls in S.A”, ABC News, www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/27/2347624.htm, August 27, 2008.
Cooke, Dewi, “11-year-olds locked up in detention”, The Age, August 27, 2008.
O’Maley, Christine, “Detainees on notice to behave”, The Blacktown Advocate, August 13, 2008, http://blacktown-advocate.whereilive.com.au/news/story/detainees-on-notice-to-behave/
“Increase in detainees”, Sydney Morning Herald, August 3, 2008. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/02/
1217097606122.html?feed=fairfaxdigitalxml
“Juvenile Justice supervision figure hits 4 yr high”, ABC news, August 27, 2008. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/08/27/2347444.htm
Young more likely to be jailed, report says, The West Australian, August 26, 2008. http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=509722
NSW Youth Action Policy and Association and Youth Justice Coalition joint media release, 9 April 2008.
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© 2008. First published on actnow.com.au
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