KIDS NEED RESPECT

AT LEAST we have a Youth Justice Minister in Leanne Linard, “Tough not enough to combat kid crims” (CP, 7/10), who does not fall for the “lock them all up” chant of some sections of the community and even the Cairns Post who uses the inappropriate term “kid crims”!

The minister is right in taking the humane and non-slanging manner of addressing the problem.

The so-called “hard-line” waved around like some magic wand has had no success based on empirical evidence.

The minister is supporting “more intensive interventions” as government policy means extra spending.

The proposal for a new juvenile detention centre should be taken carefully as this can easily backfire on the government given the serious problems that have occurred in other jurisdictions such as the Northern Territory and West Australia.

Using existing services and boosting them with appropriately trained professionals who can work with community and obtain better outcomes for the community and juveniles is ideal.

This also highlights the vast disparity between sections of the community and juvenile offenders and there is an opinion that this is responsible (a motivation) that drives young people to “excite” their normally meaningless lives.

The community has to step-up to provide more engagement and meaning in the lives of young people, because as it stands now, illegal behaviour and even drug use is being used for these purposes. It also means the community must be tolerant and not expect “quick-fixes”. They must contribute over the longterm to an increased range of job and training opportunities for young people. If the community fails in this endeavour, then why blame the juveniles?

Michael Barry Henderson, Cairns