A major public storm erupted recently in Victoria about the government's proposal to locate a new juvenile justice detention centre at Werribee in the city's south west. Locals saw it as demeaning to their neighbourhood, and public pressure forced the government to change the location.
In my view, it's not the site that's wrong, but the whole idea. We have already seen across the nation that putting hundreds of behaviourally disturbed kids of different ages with different needs in one prison-like institution is a recipe for further trouble.
We should have learned that from riots and other violence, at the Cleveland Centre in Townsville, Don Dale in the NT, Parkville, Malmsbury and Barwon in Victoria, Banksia Hill in WA, or Kariong in NSW.
This is only likely to continue while we keep trying to impose a failed adult corrections model on kids. We need to treat them differently because they are different: their emotional maturity, impulse control, and social connectedness are incomplete.
Many of the kids in the juvenile justice system have been abused, come from dysfunctional families or state care, or have untreated behavioural, mental health or substance abuse problems.
Warehousing them in the punishing idleness of a prison regime and expecting passive compliance, let alone any recovery, is fanciful. I have recently begun to think about how we could respond to these kids in a holistic way, with a strong emphasis on prevention and diversion. The proposals below relate specifically to the current system in Victoria, but the principles generalise easily.
The first priority should be the establishment of a world-class young peoples forensic assessment and treatment service. It would work in all four areas of a holistic youth justice system. In prevention and diversion, it would develop programs to support schools, school support services, police, families and local and cultural communities. In supervision and intervention, it would identify not only the needs of young people, but also the level of risk they pose to themselves and others.
Much of the expertise to undertake these tasks already exists. The pressing need is for clear policy direction, excellent clinical leadership, strong coordination, adequate resources and refocusing.
"Doing some or all of this, or more, will be expensive. But at least it has some chance of not being good money thrown after bad, which is what a continuation of the current model will deliver in wasted lives."
For young people who are charged with multiple or serious offences, this service would need an assessment and treatment centre, a residential facility run on the model of a therapeutic service provided by mental health professionals, within a perimeter secured by professional corrections staff.
Effective diversion programs will need specially trained police and more community youth workers. In Victoria, some of the recently promised 4000 extra police should be trained to work in prevention and community diversion with young people. Some have already been 'hypothecated' to work in family violence prevention. Many of those they work with will be kids often seen in the youth justice system.
A new young peoples supervision service should replace adult concepts like probation, bail and parole, with broad, flexible, court-supervised community orders.
The Children's Court should be totally revamped and enlarged. It needs to be able to respond to young people's offending behaviour in a much more timely way — in days, not weeks. It needs to be able to identify children at risk in its protection jurisdiction and steer them toward diversionary programs. In Victoria, as well as incorporating the resources and experience of the Youth Parole Board, community members and mental health professionals should be recruited to the bench to play a strong role in the court's diversion and supervision responsibilities.
The court will necessarily take decisions to detain some young people beyond assessment and treatment, for risk management and sometimes punitive reasons. At least initially and perhaps even in the longer run, the system will need a high-security detention facility to deal with particularly dangerous and recidivist offenders, but that absolutely should not form the model for the whole system, nor should these kids be housed with others who are much more vulnerable. The facility should house no more than 50 kids, should still have a primary rehabilitation focus, even in a high-security environment, and should be used only as a last resort for the shortest time possible.
Beyond the high-security and assessment and treatment centres, there should be youth education centres. Well-trained corrections staff would take care of security, but inside the walls would be a secondary school campus, a couple of TAFEs, an outdoor skills learning centre, and a special purpose Aboriginal learning facility, all charged with engaging local communities. A series of step up/step down 'foyers' would allow kids to continue programs they begin in detention while living in the community, or to start programs without being detained after assessment and treatment.
Doing some or all of this, or more, will be expensive — a major investment in radically new infrastructure. But at least it has some chance of not being good money thrown after bad, which is what a continuation of the current model will deliver in wasted lives.
Terry Laidler, a former ABC Melbourne broadcaster, is a psychologist with wide forensic experience, from the Parole Board to chairing the Mental Health Reform Council.