Youth Justice Amendments

by Emily Lewsey | May 11, 2016

Youth Justice Amendments:

A Step Back in the Right
Direction?
The Queensland Government has recently flagged amendments to the State’s youth justice
regime, with the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 currently at the
committee stage. Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath has framed these proposed amendments in
opposition to the changes made by the previous Government, which were passed in 2012 and
2014, saying the ‘tough on crime’ stance of the previous amendments has not been successful.
This Bill will work in concert with the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 to
reinstate many practices and principles that were altered in the previous parliamentary term. This
amending statute has been the subject of a parliamentary committee report, which was handed
down in March 2016.

The 2016 Bill contains various changes to the youth justice system, but most notably it removes
the transfer to adult correctional facilities of 17 year olds who have six months or more of their
sentence left serve. This threshold has been increased to 18 years. Former changes which
required court proceedings to be open for non-first time juvenile offenders unless a court closure
was required in the interests of justice have also been deleted from the Childrens Court Act
1992 (Qld).

The 2016 Bill also restores to courts the power, where appropriate, to refer young offenders to
youth justice conferences, in which the offender, the victim and other concerned persons may
engage in a dialogue about the offending and what can be done about it. In 2012, this referring
power was restricted to police officers. Importantly, courts must now consider referring young
offenders to a ‘restorative justice process’ before sentence is passed. These processes allow
diversion of young offenders away from more intensive and expensive sentencing and
punishment processes and provides an alternate means of granting some satisfaction and
closure all parties to the offending.

The 2015 Bill moves against other changes made by the previous Government, principally the
removal of youth boot camps and breach of bail offences for children. Importantly, however, the
sentencing principal of imprisonment as a last resort has also been reinstated, bringing
Queensland back into line with all other States and Territories in Australia. Also important is the
deemed inadmissibility of unrecorded childhood convictions in sentencing adult offenders.
Perhaps something that the new amendments overlook is the status generally of 17 year olds in
the youth justice system. While 17 year olds will no longer be transferred to adult prisons from
juvenile detention centres where they are already serving a sentence, children of this age group
are treated as adults as the Youth Justice Act 1992(Qld) (previously the Juvenile Justice Act
1992 (Qld)) does not and has never applied to persons who are 17 years of age or older.
This has long been criticised and is out of step with other jurisdictions, as well as Australia’s
human rights obligations with Queensland’s regime having received reproach from both the
Australian Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the
Child. Whether this is something either side of politics is interested in addressing remains to be
seen, but the currently proposed amendments are positive steps to a more just and effective
youth justice system.

Source: https://www.howdensaggers.com/youth-justice/