Steering kids to right path
KEEPING young offenders on the straight and narrow and out of detention will become the focus of a taskforce working on reform in the state.
Youth Justice Taskforce Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon said in the coming months a “rigorous” and “intensive” approach would be placed on figuring out how to help juveniles transition back into the community after being released from detention.
Ms Scalon said at a Brisbane press conference on Friday that police would be working “more closely” with agencies such as education, youth justice and housing to help young people stay out of trouble.
It comes after Ms Scanlon announced almost 70 per cent of juvenile offenders in the state have been kept behind bars since youth justice law changes in April, which created a presumption against bail for repeat offenders and sought parental assurance their child would behave if granted bail.
Between April 20 and August 24, 738 young people had been arrested, held in custody by police and put before a court statewide.
More than 500 of those applied for bail with 243 in a show cause position under the new bail laws, and 129 of those were refused and held in custody.
Ms Scanlon said she was very happy with the results four months since the legislation changes.
“I am very pleased from the early indications … there is much more work to be done but it is taking effect,” Ms Scanlon said.
“In a perfect world, I’d prefer no children in detention, but the community need to be protected.”
In the last two weeks, Townsville has been struck by a wave of violent youth crime, including armed carjackings, assaults and many stolen car crashes.
A swag of arrests has seen Cleveland Youth Detention Centre hit capacity, and watchhouses across the region fill up.
Ms Scanlon said it was not only up to police to help reduce crime once these children were released.
“Over the next few months we will be very heavily focused on the planning and case management … on what we do with the top 10 per cent group to bring other agencies much closer.
“There is much more work to be done.”
Ms Scanlon said important considerations would be made for Indigenous kids.
“No child is the same, no community is the same, so that’s the challenge, to develop a more intensive model that will cater for the regional communities.
“We are dealing with kids with high dysfunctional backgrounds, kids in poverty … some young people tell us it’s safer to be in a detention centre than it is to be at home.
“That’s the sad reality here.” New figures also show the total number of juvenile offences decreased 10.2 per cent to 52,001 offences, comparing 2019-20 and 2020-21, while the number of unique juvenile offenders decreased 5.8 per cent to 10,559.
Ms Scanlon said social media was a “key driver” behind some of the youth crime and it also created copycat type offending.