Extending the NSW temporary youth bail laws from 12 months to four years has been condemned with data showing 80 per cent of young people charged with certain serious break and enter or motor vehicle theft offences have been refused bail since March last year.
‘This is an enormously disappointing development,’ former magistrate David Heilpern told The Echo.
‘A short-term political fix has now morphed into a long-term tightening of bail laws. As the Supreme Court of NSW has pointed out, this ‘ham-fisted’ response means that children are treated more strictly than adults in exactly the same situation.
‘If you tighten bail laws it inevitably leads to more young people being locked up before it is determined if they are guilty or not. Over 50 per cent of these young people will not be sentenced to incarceration, so we are effectively locking up many innocent young people.
‘The real test ought to be “have these child-abuse laws reduced crime?” I think we all, especially on the North Coast of NSW, know the answer to that.’
The laws have not appeared to have had the desired impact locally with youth crime prevention meetings being held in Lennox Head and Goonellabah looking at ways to reduce youth crime in the community. Further, Prime Minster Anthony Albanese was in Lennox Head on Friday announcing a further $3 million of North Coast crime prevention measures (in the form of CCTV, lighting and landscaping) if Labor are reelected at the upcoming federal election.
Intervention and diversion effective
Superintendent Scott Tanner, from the Richmond Police District, previously told The Echo that intervention and diversion programs are key to building up young people’s confidence to divert them away from crime.
‘Education, and it doesn’t have to be formal education, is the way out of poverty and disadvantage for these young people,’ he said.
The youth bail law changes were opposed by civil society organisations in March last year, including the NSW Bar Association, the Law Society of NSW, and the Aboriginal Legal Service.
The President of the Law Society of NSW Jennifer Ball acknowledged concerns in communities across NSW about community safety and youth offending but highlighted the importance of investment in youth – with jail being a last resort.
‘The Law Society welcomes further investment in early intervention and diversionary approaches to youth justice in Moree, and continues to call for an expansion of these investments into communities across all regional NSW communities. Investments to improve community safety should be tailored to the needs of each community,’ she told The Echo.
‘The Law Society continues to oppose measures inconsistent with the longstanding principle that children should only be imprisoned as a last resort. Further, simply incarcerating children is unlikely to achieve sustainable community safety.’
Further criminalisation
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said ‘It’s entirely unsurprising that [the percentage of] young people being denied bail for certain offences has shot up to 80 per cent, that’s exactly what Premier Chris Minns wanted these laws to do and he knew it would mean more young people in prison,’
‘When the Minns Labor government introduced knee-jerk youth bail changes to the NSW Parliament last year, the move was condemned by legal and youth justice advocacy organisations across NSW. The changes were not designed to reduce crime, they were only designed to make the government appear tough on crime.
‘The commitment of additional funds by the Minns Labor government for support and diversion programs, particularly to Aboriginal Controlled Organisations, is very welcome and long overdue. However, the Minns Labor government’s response is wrongly based on the further criminalisation of young people through police-led operations, over-policing, the refusal of bail and incarceration, further entrenching cycles of criminality which undermines all of the community’s good work. It is the antithesis of community-led initiative and response, actual diversion from the criminal justice system and therapeutic responses, which we know is what’s needed to actually prevent the behaviours that led to offensive behaviour,’ she said.
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