Queensland Government Continues Criminal Law Reform with Harsh New Youth Laws

Tuesday 4 March 2014 @ 10.59 a.m. | Crime | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure

On 11 February 2014, the Queensland Attorney General the the Honourable JP Bleijie (the Attorney) introduced the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 into the Queensland Parliament. The Bill, according to the Attorney, implements the results of a formal review of key elements of the Queensland's Youth Justice Act 1992 which was completed as part of the government’s comprehensive reform of the youth justice system in Queensland.

About the Bill

The Bill proposes to amend primarily the Youth Justice Act 1962 and the Children's Court Act 2000 and also adjusts sentencing principles in the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 to, in the Attorney's words:

" . . . ensure courts sentencing adult offenders have the same flexibility in imposing custodial sentences as is given by the Bill to courts sentencing child offenders."

The Attorney said in his speech introducing the Bill to the  Parliament that the amendments introduced in the bill are:

"critical to respond to the escalating seriousness and devastation currently being caused by young criminals. We are witnessing a changing pattern of youth offending in Queensland. There might be fewer young people offending, but those young criminals who are offending are doing so more often and are committing more serious offences. It is this government’s commitment to protect the community from crime".

Key Policy Objectives

Essentially the key policy objectives stated for the legislation in the explanatory information accompanying the Bill are to:

  1. Permit repeat offenders’ identifying information to be published and open the Children's Court for youth justice matters involving repeat offenders;
  2. Create a new offence where a child commits a further offence while on bail;
  3. Permit childhood findings of guilt for which no conviction was recorded to be admissible in court when sentencing a person for an adult offence;
  4. Provide for the automatic transfer from detention to adult corrective services facilities of 17 year old youths who have six months or more left to serve in detention;
  5. Provide that, in sentencing any adult or child for an offence punishable by imprisonment, the court must not have regard to any principle, whether under statute or at law, that a sentence of imprisonment (in the case of an adult) or detention (in the case of a child) should only be imposed as a last resort;
  6. Allow children who have absconded from Sentenced Youth Boot Camps to be arrested and brought before a court for re-sentencing without first being given a warning; and
  7. Make a technical amendment to the Youth Justice Act 1992.

Reaction

As today's press reports indicate, many fear the proposed reforms are misguided and could be counter-productive; see for example the Australia Online:

The "tough new measures aimed at young offenders in Queensland could actually increase crime, lawyers [the Queensland Law Society] and Amnesty International have warned".

The government's concerns with the "escalating seriousness and devastation currently being caused by young criminals" appears to be in sharp contrast to reported evidence from bodies such as the Queensland Law Society (QLS) who have cast doubt on the government's claims that youth crime is on the rise. The QLS is reported as quoting from the Children's Court's Annual Report, which it claims indicates a 6.9 percent drop in youth crime in December 2011, and an even larger fall the year before.

Further, the QLS points to evidence of fewer young people going through the courts, but a rise in the total number of charges, indicating an increasing problem with repeat offenders - a problem, the government should be focused on says the QLS, with intervention programs for repeat offenders "rather than sweeping reforms".

In another report, it is stated the QLS Principal Policy Adviser Matthew Dunn has told Queensland Parliament's Legal Affairs committee, that:

"What we do know is that sentencing young people to detention actually increases the likelihood of them returning to detention, entering the adult criminal justice system, and that provides less protection to the community, . . ."

Amnesty International is quoted as pointing out that there is "overwhelming evidence pointing to the ineffectiveness of the proposals" and saying that the ". . . Bill risks having serious and long-term detrimental consequences on the lives of at-risk young kids, . . ."

Further, Amnesty has indicated that the proposed changes are in direct conflict with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that the arrest, detention and imprisonment of young people should be a last resort.

In response, the Attorney has pointed to the number of offences and the seriousness of offences claiming they climbed under the former Labor government's "slap-on-the-wrist approach", saying that it's result was "hardened, repeat offenders, criminals who are in their early teens and that's precisely what these reforms target . . ."

Much of the reaction to the proposed laws is that they are misguided, punitive and not likely to have much effect on the problems they are intended to resolve. The proposed laws appear to be a trend to an ever increasing level of mandatory consequence in respect of punishment for offences rather than a measured consideration based on the offence and the circumstances. 

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