Stevens backs parents’ call to lock up problem children
PARENTS of children involved in youth crime are “at their wits’ end” and desperate to see them locked up, an MP claims.
In a speech to parliament on Tuesday, Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens said he had met with “several parents” of youths involved in “serious crime sprees” on the Gold Coast.
“These are good, loving, caring parents who are desperately frustrated at the behaviour of one of their children while having well-behaved, normal brothers and sisters to that sibling being unfairly affected by that sibling’s atrocious behaviour,” Mr Stevens said.
“They are at their wits’ end trying to combat the unacceptable behaviour of their child and they are crying out for help.”
Mr Stevens said the parents he spoke to feared their children would be hurt in an accident involving a stolen vehicle, and would prefer they resaid.
mained in detention until peer pressure abated.
“These kids are as young as 13 and have no regard to parental direction or control,” he “The parents themselves want them taken out of normal society and away from peergroup gang pressure until their behaviour can be corrected.”
Mr Stevens launched a petition on November 4 calling for breach of bail to be made an offence in the youth justice system and for mandatory rehabilitation measures to be implemented for repeat offenders.
As of Tuesday, the petition had been signed by more than 1200 people.
It comes after the Gold
Coast Bulletin, in a series of reports, exposed how a wave of youth crime had swept over the Gold Coast.
Police figures last month showed more than a dozen juveniles were involved in the theft of vehicles in just five days.
In Palm Beach alone, 15 cars were taken in a two-week period.
The majority of arrests made by police in relation to the crimes were of young people aged between 13 and 17 years old.