Page 530 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 February 2012
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The ACT youth justice system comprises a range of early intervention, prevention and diversion approaches ranging from family support, child and family centres, Parentlink, schools and communities. Secondary diversion programs target young people who come to the attention of police, schools or other agencies as being at risk of or exhibiting antisocial behaviours.
However, the national data published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare highlights some significant and specific challenges with the ACT youth justice system, including the number of young people involved in the system, the nature of their involvement including frequent periods of short-term incarceration, and their extended duration in the system. Alongside other jurisdictions, the ACT also has the challenge of unacceptably high rates of overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people within our youth justice system.
The ACT government is committed to improving outcomes for young people in the ACT. We are committed to ensuring that as few people as possible come into contact with the youth justice system. For those young people who do come in contact with the system, we want to provide the right support to foster their positive re-engagement in the community and prevent further involvement within the youth justice system. In essence, this is about early intervention, prevention and diversion.
The government is involved in a comprehensive and intensive dialogue with the community on youth justice. In February last year the Community Services Directorate undertook consultation on the discussion paper “Towards a diversionary framework in the ACT”. This process sought feedback on strategies to divert young people away from the criminal justice system, particularly in relation to diversion from custody. Feedback was also sought to understand what programs and practices are working well and where services could be improved at all points in the youth justice system. The release of the discussion paper represented the first commitment by this government to engage the community to look seriously at these issues.
We know that we need to embed diversionary principles and practices across the ACT government and the community. The principles of early intervention, prevention and diversion are well understood. The challenge we as a community face is to craft effective responses to give effect to these overriding principles.
It is to this end that the Youth Justice Implementation Taskforce is involved in intensive dialogue with the community around addressing these important principles in the blueprint for youth justice in the ACT. This dialogue is being led by the Youth Justice Implementation Taskforce. It engages a number of critical stakeholders. This is occurring with people from a range of backgrounds and diverse experiences.
In the coming month the task force is holding five open community forums. These are targeted activities for children and young people and their families. They are hosted by the Youth Coalition of the ACT and Families ACT. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people and their families are hosted by the Aboriginal Justice Centre. The youth and community sector is being hosted through the Youth Coalition of the ACT and government and oversight agencies.
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