Our resident juvenile career crim has caused an estimated $100,000 damage & am inclined to think the figure is much higher. Some of his exploits have occurred since he turned 16. Only a month ago the Magistrate put him on 15 months probation. I'm now convinced that the Magistrate is a perverse weirdo & the real criminal here.
It is crystal clear that the juvenile justice system is an abject failure. Will a Coalition Government make the necessary changes ? In Qld Campbell Newman's Government hasn't changed anything yet.

it always puzzles me why the justice system which is a joke is always scruntised. The high indigeneous incarceration rates are due to an ernormous amount of crime from the indigeneous community. Policing could be quarterd in some towns where indigeneous population is only about 15%. Why not address attitudes and behaviours that lead to so much crime by so few.

attitudes and behaviours that lead to so much crime by so few.
runner,
It is well known that wanting everything for nothing & having been told by do-gooder academics all your life that you're entitled to that expectation if you are indigenous is what brought this on.
In the non-indigenous community it is that idiotic pushing for education that is the cause. There's no mention of work in any of these policies. It's always & only about individual rights, never about responsibility.
I was told I'll just have to get on with it after the crim who stole so much out of my house got off on probation. Restitution was totally waived by the idiot magistrates.
I'd say it is the Law itself & those who are in a symbiosis with it who are the real problem. The young crims get simply too much encouragement from that. One can hardly blame them for going for it when they fully well know they're immune from Justice.

Hi there SONOFGLOIN...

Interesting ! Being brought up in ol' Redfern. I was working there in the mid to late seventies. The district sure has a unique character to it. I reckon we got more calls to attend an address in Everleigh Street and Lane, more than anywhere else in the area.

Surprisingly, the South Sydney Police Boys Club, was regularly broken into at night and usually just trashed by some disaffected individual.
Redfern with all it's 'characters', believe me there were some really lovely people who lived there many of them all their lives. More often than not these people lived just above the poverty line. Nevertheless, they were all very proud and resilient folk, and hung on fiercely to their dignity.

Do you recall 'Mumma Shirl' ? She was a lovely fiesty old black lady, who did a lot with troubled indigenous youth. Every morning she'd be at Courthouse (in Redfern Street) willing to give a hand to the many young black kids who needed to appear before the local SM, usually on some minor 'street offence' ? I believe she now passed on, sadly.

We used to get a lot of deaths there too. Old people, 'friendless' passing away in their little abode, and not being discovered until the process of advanced decomposition made itself apparent.

Redfern, a sad and exuberant place at the same time. Where a rookie young Constable, learnt the correct way to talk to people. Try to put the 'bounce' on some of those living there, and you'd find yourself flat on your face 'sucking' concrete quick smart ! The Majesty of a police uniform, meant 'nought' in Redfern !

Many thanks for your opinion and views, SONOFGLOIN.

'evening to you...ONTHEBEACH,BELLY,INDIVIDUAL and RUNNER.

I really can't argue with anyone's view herein.

My only real concern and issue is with indigenous youth. Most of my time I've been very much a typical hardliner. Until about fifteen years ago. A Doctor I know, gave me a pretty comprehensive 'heads up' on what it's like for young black unemployed youths who live in these 'humpies' on the outskirts of small western towns, all around Australia.

Most are deemed unemployable, no future, no job, no education, no role model, no prospects and often no family, and so it goes on ?

The 'authorities' stop access to hard liquor, so they sniff petrol and glue, they then drink paint thinners, windex, and when there's absolutely nothing else around, many simply go out to a large tree and hang 'emselves !

This Doctor's a Psychiatrist. Every three months or so, he heads west to Broome in WA, and from there, he in the company of another mental health professional, are flown around in a light A/C. to the many tiny settlements in WA and the NT, as far out as Balgo Hills in the NT. Where he sees mainly the black women, many can't even speak english, who are the victims of some really shocking domestic violence.

And as far as these disaffected black youths, most are hopelessly mentally ill, caused by the ingestion of all manner of deleterious substances, and beyond any medical or psychological help at all.

Therefore, unless these people commit a serious offence, gaol should not be considered an appropriate option...ever.

O sung wu,

There is yet another reason for the high rate of aboriginal juveniles incarcerated in W.A.

In the small communities with high aboriginal population they've learned that if they for instance do a small breakin or other petty crime, they are sent by plane to Perth for assessment and sentencing.

Word gets back quickly that this is akin to a holiday. First they get to fly on a plane for free. Then when they arrive they are showered,checked for lice [very prevalent] scabies and v.d. by the resident nurse, given clean clothes, get 3 square meals a day, have access to a super indoor 1st class basketball court, can play football in the quadrangle, watch colour t.v., watch inhouse movies which are hired each week, play on the trampoline, sleep on clean linen, and have a visiting hairdresser. Makeup is supplied for the girls. So, they didn't learn much scholastically, but they were having fun, and no worries about being beaten up or neglected by drunken parents.

When they leave it is with a new set of clothes and a new pair of shoes. I don't know if the reward system still exists, but at one time they were rewarded financially for good behaviour as well.

For many of these kids, this is the best they've had it so far in their lives, and they can't wait to re-offend and spread the good news to other kids in the community when they fly back.

Although they accounted for probably around 75-80 percent at any given time of all the juvies, the majority of them interacted well with those set to watch over them. Why wouldn't they?

The occasional hard core kid who had killed or raped had often been under the influence of some substance at the time, and a few of them showed genuine remorse. There were a few who didn't. One boy and one girl who had each murdered a person were both half aboriginal city kids, and in my opinion race had nothing to do with it. They both displayed typical psycopathic personalities.