Break the cycle
AS a person who has a Bachelor in Social Science Youth and having worked extensively as a youth justice worker at Parkville and Malmsbury Youth Justice Centres I feel strongly about ending the youth crime crisis.
I think there must be consequences for their actions regardless of mental health and upbringing.
The victims suffer greatly at the hands of these young people. Children are living in fear and sleeping in parents’ rooms after home invasions.
A slap on the wrist, bail granted and the revolving door in and out of jail is not the answer. They think it’s a joke, I can tell you this first hand. This method must be fixed immediately before more get hurt.
I also believe in their reform — way too much degrading of these young people goes on.
I approached them with belief and positive reinforcement. In return they treated me with respect and I had an excellent rapport with the young men at Parkville and Malmsbury.
Other workers held this view, and it was clear to see the boys responded to it rather that arrogance and negative reinforcement from some staff.
“Where are the parents?” caller after caller on talkback radio asks and then follow it up with “They just give them pizza, it’s a holiday camp.” It’s frustrating as many of these callers have no idea.
The fact is that many are not in contact with their parents at all. One young man had a heroin addict as a mother, and refused her visits and never met his father. Another had a prostitute as a mother and again no father.
One had a father who was also in jail and when he was out of jail endlessly cancelled his visits to his son. On one of his releases he was picked up by his father who took him to assist in an armed robbery. He was back inside the next day.
When they are released they often go to transitional housing or residential care, which has very little security. They go straight back to the wrong crowd, and there are no rules, which they desperately need. There are not enough programs post-release for these young people to attend.
Many are not educated so they steal to survive. They seek the thrill of drugs as they do not know the concept of being loved.
By keeping them on the inside they can do their reform and the community is safe.
Parkville has a school, Parkville College, where they can do years 7 to 12. It is compulsory to attend or otherwise they have to scrub walls. They also have YMCA daily and music programs.
They do chores every day — all cleaning is done by the clients. You may laugh at the term clients, but what do you suggest we call them — thugs? We are about reform. They need to see themselves in a new light.
Let me set the pizza myth straight also. In my time there were a few boys who got on the roof. The others were furious as it meant they were in lockdown in tiny rooms with very little air and food delivered through slots in their doors. Once they came down from the roof, after seven hours you will give them pizza just to get them down. Then they are locked in their room for a week and put on observation every 10 minutes.
There is a jewel in my heart created by these young men that looked back at me with a face that said “Thank you Jamie for believing in me, for listening to me”. This, I believe, is the start. After lockdown at night you turn the key and they are locked in for 12 hours. If you had won their respect their fist came up to the window to meet yours and they would ask “What day are you next back?”. We were all they had.
As well as working for animal welfare I knew I belonged here helping these young men to be the best that they can be.
Helping another is a great feeling, it’s healing yourself also. I have done various jobs in my life, even TV modelling many moons ago, but nothing compared to this — it was like flicking on a switch I could connect. My job was to mentor and set examples and punish any wrongdoing by them. SBS series First Contact and the Prison Officer put it this way: “The way is respect. If you respect them they are likely to leave better people, if you are angry they are way more likely to leave angry and continue the cycle of crime.” My thoughts precisely.