Jail teaches bad habits
Former youth centre leader calls for strong reforms
A FORMER Parkville youth centre leader says strong reforms, called for in the parliamentary inquiry into youth justice, are needed to stop youth centres from becoming criminal training grounds.
Dr Lloyd Owen, who is also an honorary Deakin professor, said young minor criminals are often grouped together in under resourced youth training centres where they become disconnected and learn bad habits.
Newtown’s Dr Owen, who worked at Parkville and Malmsbury in the 80s, has praised last month’s Parliamentary Inquiry into youth justice findings that, among other things, called for stabilised staffing, consistent funding and more effective postrelease services to fix Victoria’s youth justice system.
“(After the Malmsbury riots) I was concerned there would be a knee-jerk reaction to these events — I get concerned when governments begin talking about law and order (which is) for generating votes” Dr Owen said.
He said calls for “longer and tougher sentences” were often not supported by the hiring additional staff, meaning over crowded centres were less able to provide effective rehabilitation for young offenders.
“There are always calls for more police, but not calls for more youth justice workers.”
Dr Owen assisted Geelong Inter-Church Social Justice Network to write a powerful submission to the inquiry close to two years ago. The submission highlighted deep concern about the future of Victoria’s youth justice facilities and services for young offenders, while also highlighting the success Geelong agencies had had.
Dr Owen said Barwon Child Youth and Family’s groundbreaking Geelong Project was one of Victoria’s very successful programs that need- ed to be more widely introduced to create greater change.
“We need to ensure kids can develop relationships with workers who they are really able to connect with,” Dr Owen said.
“Many of these kids (in the justice system) come from very traumatised backgrounds — from war torn countries or family violence. A lot of these kids have never trusted anyone.”
Dr Owen said a stable workforce was needed to foster these relationships and ensure rehabilitation occurred.
Preventive pilot program The Geelong Project has seen a 40 per cent reduction in the number of homeless young students in Geelong, a 20 per cent reduction in early school leaving and a 50 per cent reduction in the level of school disengagement by at-risk students. On releasing the parliamentary inquiries findings, committee chair Margaret Fitzherbert made 33 findings and recommendations.