Detention should no longer be a last resort for young offenders, but authorities need to “grow up” and create a detention system that works, according to Noosa MP and Youth Crime Committee chair Sandy Bolton.
Speaking to Today newspapers this week, Ms Bolton called for a total rethink from all sides of politics to achieve improved community safety and avoid “making a bad situation worse.”
Ms Bolton said this was why all 60 of her committee’s recommendations to state parliament needed to be implemented in full.
“It’s no good just punishing people and then returning them to the environment which caused the problem in the first place,” she said.
“We need education, housing and transition from detention services so the problem doesn’t keep getting worse.
“This hasn’t happened ovenight. It’s been 50 or 100 years in the making,” she said.
Some offenders were in need of rehabilitation, she said. Some had mental health issues or brain damage and needed lifelong care.
“What do you do with a 14-year-old who has a mental age of four?
“If we don’t look at all aspects of this, we’re not going to see an end to it.
“We’ll see the same people coming through again and new people as well and it will just get worse.
“We live in a lucky country but the extent of intergenerational parenting deficiency and problems of violence and abuse in households mean we see children as young as five fleeing to the streets.
“We closed many of our institutions for very good reason, but some people need 24/7 care,” she said.
“So far Labor has agreed in full or in principle to all the recommendations but there’s nothing so far from the Opposition.
“The problems are enormous and multifold. There is a lot of work to do and we need a big commitment.
“People said to me, ‘We’ve been here before. Nothing has changed.’
“I said, ‘I promise you that this will not be just a tick box exercise.”
This would require a new and more adult approach, she said.
She said the Youth Crime Committee had disbanded because it was unable to reach bi-partisan agreement.
But it had presented an interim report, with 60 recommendations.
“They all need to be done. You can’t just do a few of them,” she said.
Detention should no longer be a last resort, but it has to be detention that works.
She said bi-partisan support was needed so solutions could “move beyond a political term or party.”
“The government has promised full or in principle support but so far I have heard nothing from the Opposition.”
“The LNP says it will not support anything that gags the media, but there is nothing in our recommendations to gag the media.
“Detention should no longer be a last resort and some people will need ongoing care and that may mean a residential requirement.”
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