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‘No cause for celebration’ on drop in youth detention rates: LCA
A slight drop in youth detention rates should be a cause for celebration however, Indigenous children continue to be alarmingly over-represented in the youth justice system, says Law Council president, Pauline Wright.
Tony Zhang
The new findings by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) Youth Justice Report revealed a slight reduction over the past five years but this only serves to highlight systemic problems, according to the Law Council of Australia.
“Indigenous children continue to be alarmingly over-represented in the youth justice system,” Ms Wright said.
Previously, Lawyers Weekly reported that the 12th Closing the Gap Report had revealed that five of seven of the Closing the Gap targets were not on track.
The new report reveals that on an average day in 2018-19, Indigenous children aged 10-17 were 16 times more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to be under supervision, rising to 21 times more likely in some states and territories.
Indigenous children are 22 times more likely to be in detention and 15 times more likely to be under community-based supervision.
“We are also concerned that there has been no improvement to the rates of children in detention awaiting the outcome of their legal matter or sentencing. In 2018-19, about 3 in 5 (63 per cent) young people in detention on an average day were unsentenced, with similar rates reported in 2017-18,” Ms Wright said.
“This is particularly disturbing given that when they do come to court, many of these children will not be sentenced to any time in detention.”
The LCA maintained its call on federal, state and territory governments to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 which is in line with the current stance from other legal bodies.
Furthermore, the LCA has recommended to put in place early preventative and diversion services to enable this to happen, with a focus on investing in Indigenous community-led solutions, and particularly in remote and very remote areas and expand and fund justice reinvestment trials, which have had promising results so far in diverting young people out of the system.
“The Law Council believes that complementary Closing the Gap Refresh targets are also critical, with an aim to reduce the proportion of Indigenous children entering out-of-home care, which often provides a pathway into the youth justice system,” Ms Wright said.
