Page 4562 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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and they also acknowledged that these agencies were able to provide innovative and flexible provision in the community.
I was encouraged by this attitude, as I strongly believe that the community sector has a large role to play; it has expertise, experience and knowledge that can be drawn on to enhance our youth justice system. I hope this strength is acknowledged in the government response and that this process will not simply be managed internally with no opportunity for community services to have input. I would argue that the community sector needs to be an equal partner in implementing the recommendations and of course also needs to be properly resourced to do it.
Within the 224 recommendations there are a number of changes that were able to be made quickly and easily, including issues such as changes to strip-search procedures; the use of conjoining rooms, as recommended by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody; the housing of remandees and sentenced young people separately in the Coree unit; the use of segregation; and a range of other issues. When we sit down to read and analyse this response I will be paying particular attention to what changes have been implemented immediately, to move these issues along and to improve the day-to-day running of and conditions at Bimberi.
The ACT Greens will continue our commitment to being part of the solution in enhancing the youth justice system through the implementation of the recommendations within this report and also are committed to being part of the solution, I guess, to find better outcomes for our youth justice system.
The minister mentioned in her tabling statement one recommendation for the same case manager to be used throughout the system to improve through care. On the face of that I do welcome it. I think it makes a lot of sense for a young person to be able to develop that rapport and relationship and for a case manager to follow them right through the system.
There was also talk about an agreement with the AFP about referring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people into restorative justice; again an important thing. An area where I want to see further work done, and I will be raising it again, is around the diversion. That first contact with police is an incredibly important contact and it is at that point that a whole life can be changed.
I have mentioned in this place before, and it was mentioned when I spoke to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, that the UK have in place a system where youth workers are embedded in or attached to a range of police stations in a number of councils around the London area. That means that, when a young person comes into contact with the police, the police are able to contact that worker who comes in and does an assessment at that point. So, if it is found that the young person is homeless or there are issues going on at home—there could be a whole range of matters—they can get onto it at that point and start bringing in the services and start the diversion. So I certainly do want to continue to raise that and to pursue it to see if it would be appropriate for something like that to be included in our system here in the ACT.
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