Today the Victorian gov’t announced moving youth justice including youth detention facilities under the control of Corrections Victoria. This is before their own review is complete and before others are handed down. This move if unchecked will quickly pave the way for dismantling a differentiated response to juvenile offending.
Recent media coverage about an internal secret report (March 2016 ) to Government about the youth detention system is a missed opportunity for public debate .
Sadly, it has largely generated hysteria about a ‘crisis’ in the youth detention system and fuelled the political football match between two old rivals: ‘Tough on Crime’ and that perennial underdog ‘Youth detention system is failing.’
We have all seen the alarming reports in the media about youth brawls, carjacking and aggravated burglaries that have grown over the past 18 months in parts of Melbourne. There is no doubt this offending is disturbing and threatening to the general public.
The Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVic0 has just released a fantastic report ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind? on school exclusion which calls on Gov’t to address the enormous number of young people who are being excluded from school through suspension, expulsion, reduced attendance, refusal of enrolment, and being ‘asked to leave’ a school.
