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ALTERNATIVES TO COURT

ALTERNATIVES TO COURT. In NSW, the average yearly cost of supervising and caring for juvenile offenders last year was $237,980 a person . “A quarter of a million dollars a year for each young person locked up, and what do we get in return ?”

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ALTERNATIVES TO COURT

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  1. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT In NSW, the average yearly cost of supervising and caring for juvenile offenders last year was $237,980 a person. “A quarter of a million dollars a year for each young person locked up, and what do we get in return?” It’s not a solution. 30% of adult prisoners were juvenile prisoners. Our system is not working. Prevention the only hope for young offenders, because cure is failing (SMH 2012)

  2. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT The longer you can keep a young person from having contact with the criminal justice system, the less chance they have of becoming a “career” criminal later in life. You don’t really want a kid that made a dumb decision one day to be stuck in a Juvenile Justice Centre with much more hardened repeat offenders. Plus, you don’t want a young person to be labeled (by others, or themselves) as a criminal at such a young age (which they might be if they go to court, even if it’s just the Children’s Court). So, the NSW government actually passed a GOOD lawin 1997 called the Young Offenders Act 1997, which allows POLICE to ‘divert’ (avoid; move away) young people from having to go to court at all. Warnings Cautions Youth Justice Conferences 3 main ways of diverting young people away from court:

  3. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action Court Youth Justice Conference Warning Control Order (detention) Caution Community Service Good Behaviour Bond Probation On-the-spot fine Fine

  4. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action About 50% of Young Offenders get diverted from formal prosecution (court) Australian Institute of Criminology, Juveniles‟ contact with the criminal justice system in Australia, 2009 Youth Justice Conference Warning Caution On-the-spot fine

  5. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action Issued by police For minor offences (no violence) No admission of guilt is needed Police record name, date, place No penalty or criminal record Can be used later (“You’ve already received a warning…”), but young people can be warned more than once Warning

  6. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action For more serious(but obviously not very serious) offences The young person must admit guilt and say yes (consent) to getting the Caution Still issued by police Still no criminal record Still gets recorded No more than three Cautions Young person can be made to write an apology, but no fines or anything else Caution

  7. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action Young person accepts responsibility for the offence More about rehabilitation and ‘restorative justice’ rather than simply punishing the young offender Youth Justice Conference It finishes with an ‘outcome plan’, which the offender has to agree to. This might include paying back the Allows the victim to say how they’ve been affected by the crime victim (e.g. working for them), apologising, going to counselling, etc. If the offender doesn’t follow the outcome plan, the young person can end up facing court instead.

  8. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action 40% Court Youth Justice Conference 60% What’s the point in having a diversionary program if you are referred to it by a court – the point is to avoid the court completely! Noetic Review (2010)

  9. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Police decide to take action 40% Youth Justice Conference It’s also CHEAPERand FASTER to do it through the police. Mediation Cheaper than Court for Juveniles (The Australian 2012)

  10. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT Youth Justice Conference 5% of all Youth Offenders Noetic Review (2010)

  11. ALTERNATIVES TO COURT An alternative to REGULAR court… The Youth Drug and Alcohol Court: Sent young offenders to counselling and rehabilitation programs instead of jail. The NSW government decided to shut it down in 2012 because it was “too expensive”. Anger as NSW axes youth drug court (ABC, 2012)

  12. Recent Trial of a NEW ALTERNATIVE: The ‘Youth on Track’ program Police and (later) schools will be able to refer young people who they believe are at risk of committing crimesto "literacy, substance abuse and mental illness services". See kids - don't commit crimes or they'll make you read. Seriously, though, this is a much better idea, especially the mental health services. Jail is where we keep a lot of our mentally ill people. If they were ill in any other part of their body, we'd keep them in hospital. Remember - this is ONLY A TRIAL in, of course, BLACKTOWN!!!! (and Kempsey and Newcastle). Getting Youth Back on Track (ABC News 2013) ALTERNATIVES TO COURT

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