The Greens say the Minns Labor Government is pushing through changes to bail and criminal laws that will result in more children being trapped in the criminal justice system and sent to jail. This is in defiance of the views of civil society, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and almost all contemporary evidence that shows sending young people to prison results in worse outcomes for both the child and society.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said, ‘Vulnerable children that are committing crimes in NSW deserve better than the knee-jerk law and order responses that Premier Chris Minns has announced today. The $26.2 million that couples this announcement is punitive enforcement money.
‘Young people that are refused bail for break and enters or motor theft offences will wind up in juvenile detention facilities, that’s the honest truth. We know that these young people that enter correctional centres will wind up in adult prisons at a rate between half and three quarters of them,’ she said.
‘No one wants to see young people engaging in crime, but all of the evidence before us shows that tougher, punitive measures do not reduce the incidence of crime – it just further traumatises the kids and damages social cohesion.’
Need for a deeper political response?
Sue Higginson says a sensible, and caring, response to youth crime is doubling down on diversionary and other support services that improve well being and reduce the rates of offending and recidivism.
‘We need to be looking beneath the surface of youth crime, not just cutting the top off of the problem when it is politically expedient,’ she said.
‘The announcement by the premier, that he wants a “balanced response” to youth crime, flies in the face of the causes and solutions to the problem. We know that for every kid in detention, in October last year, we were paying close to a million dollars per child ($985,500). Imagine what we could do if that money was reinvested into community justice programs that prioritised diversion and well being over prison time?
‘We are working across the parliament to establish an inquiry that seeks to address the issues that have been forever present in our justice system. We need to address the causes of youth offending and injustice. These issues have led to over incarceration of young people, particularly First Nations young people and other vulnerable groups, at a cost that is well beyond meaningful community led recovery programs.
‘The premier would do better for NSW if he were to sit up, pay attention, and listen to the evidence,’ Ms Higginson said.
$26.2 million to back up this punitive ill informed law and order response by Chris Minns!
Years ago when I worked in child protection in both NSW and ACT juvenile justice was part of child protection and we had full assessment reports to inform the courts of appropriate treatment & bail conditions.
We also had easy access to diversionary programs & sufficient community resources to keep kids out of juvenile detention and it worked well.
Today the child protection system and the out of home care system (oohc) formerly known as foster care is totally privatised & totally broken. No one except the Secretary of DCJ can access the Children’s courts for a Care order. The rules in the Children’s court easily dismiss matters if the Secretary doesn’t plead the reasons in the care application (s71) such as the risks of serious harm detailed in s23 Children’s & Young Persons Care & Protection ACT 1998.
Then we have DCJ removing supported oohc for grandparent carers (who make up 70% of oohc placements) and only referring the grandparent carers to Centrelink for Carers payment. The children have no thorough biopsychosocial assessment when entering grandparent care and late identification of learning delays, ptsd, perhaps autism is common.
NDIS have accepted children as old as 10.5 years under so called “early intervention”. Others have been diagnosed as late as 16 with autism due to this privatised child protection & oohc systems.
Surely that level of funding can be re- directed to “trauma informed care”in schools and TAFE and reinstate the supported out of home care for grandparent carers & ensure complete bio psycho social assessment are completed on entry to care. These children also need to access the “Create Foundation”, for all children with a care experience, which they currently can’t access.
We have Peaditrician’s, OTs, Social Workers, psychologists who understand developmental psychology and disabilities and who would support alternative trauma informed care as an alternative to prison at age 10 onwards.
I sincerely hope Chris Minns seeks this collective professional advice and makes an evidence based decision for these children & young people going forward. Australia can do so much better. Your parties conduct Chris Minns will make things worse.
The system is broken! Government have ignored traumatic children for too long. Wasted too much money on detention rather than focusing on the problems in society, especially governments.
Enough media and other reporting highlights the failure to protect children in detention and youth detention centres failing vulnerable children.
The Children’s Commissioner has condemned both sides of parliament for failing to address child maltreatment across the nation .( April 2023 ABC) Ms Holland went on to say, “Its not that we have a knowledge problem; we actually have a lack of accountability for action…there is a desperate need to overhaul public services so they properly supported children & families.
We also don’t have a Federal Children’s & Youth Affairs Minister as we did in July 2003.
Seriously, these are repeat offenders, that are endangering our community. If the Govt didn’t act on this we would be complaining, the out of control far right corrupted media is, 24/7. These criminals are giving political extremists like Dutton and Hanson and their media a huge podium to spread hate and division in our society, you have all seen these usual suspects in our media blaming Labor and the Greens for being “Soft on Crime”.
Why wait for another family to be killed by some kid, in another stolen car before we act, on what our corrupted media call, “Out of control crime”?
Let’s protect our society from these individuals rather, obstruct justice on these out of control apprentice outlaws.
Some of these “Children” have 10-15 prior arrests and convictions, they have shown they have no respect for society!
We all want to use safe roads and environment for out families, that is what Minns is doing, nothing more nothing less, this is what we have Govt’s to legislate for! If you, “Do the Crime, you will, do the Time”!
What has far – right media got to do with
Juvenile crime Tweed ? or Dutton or Hanson ?
Australia justs needs to toughen up ..follow
What the Yanks are doing with youth crime
No slap on the wrist from soft court outcomes
In you go .. !