YOUNG PEOPLE NEED MORE OF OUR SUPPORT

RE: Pollies pitch to solve crime (CP, 10/10) reveals the pollies have nothing new to offer other than what is already known.

The police are frontline in the apprehension of young offenders and their handling and processing by itself is serious enough in a young person’s life.

Victims of young persons crimes must understand this and refrain from crying out for penalties of long periods in detention centres. This achieves nothing. Some serious offenders will not escape such penalties.

I am more interested in the community becoming more supportive of alienated young people and listening to their solutions. We all have them. But young people do not have the years of life experience to deal with difficulties in their often disturbed lives.

It is tempting to remove some young offenders from the Cairns area but this is more a relocation for the crimes committed not for the benefit of the offender. What is the evidence of benefit? It can work for the motivated but not the unmotivated or disturbed.

Cairns has been developed as a tourist destination whereas young people who don’t fit in it is a place of transiency and instability and they create their own impulsive opportunities often harassing the adult population who appear to be well materially appointed.

Young people need to explore their own meanings to life and our community must be at the forefront in enabling this purpose. The Juvenile Justice Department and hardworking youth justice workers must be adequately funded to guide young people through the difficult periods of their life. Community members on the frontline need to keep up the pressure to ensure the resources and funding is readily available.

Michael Barry Henderson, Cairns