Juvenile Justice Laws
The Queensland Government is proposing a raft of changes to the Juvenile Justice Act when Parliament resumes on 11 February this year.
Proposed Juvenile Justice Changes
These changes include:
- Removing detention as a sentence of last resort.
- Making breach of bail an offence if a young person commits a crime while on bail.
- Naming and shaming of repeat offenders.
- Making all juvenile criminal histories available in adult courts to give a magistrate or judge a complete understanding of a defendant’s history.
- Transferring juvenile offenders to adult correctional centres when they reach 17 years of age if they have six or more months of their sentence remaining.
Education and rehabilitation
We maintain that the preferable approach to the majority of those appearing in the Juvenile Justice system is to provide stability and education. The effect of many of these changes will, in our view, further alienate the young person from mainstream society.
The current regime is said to acknowledge that young people make mistakes and should be afforded opportunity in their future efforts to obtain employment etc. This proposed approach will make rehabilitation for the young person even more difficult.
Disclaimer
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For specific legal advice you should immediately contact Gatenby Criminal Lawyers on (07) 5580 0120.
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