Criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy says breach of bail would help police
A Queensland criminologist has backed the return of breach of bail as an offence for youths, saying it will help police deal with the state’s worst young offenders.
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A QUEENSLAND criminologist has backed the return of breach of bail as an offence for youths, saying it will help police deal with the state’s worst young offenders.
The return of breach of bail for young offenders has been a hotly contested topic after the Labor government removed it from the Youth Justice Act when they won power.
Last weekend, the Opposition launched a petition to bring back breach of bail, which gained more than 10,000 signatures in 48 hours.
The state government has repeatedly refused to consider bringing back the charge as an offence.
Earlier this year the state introduced new youth justice legislation which included GPS trackers for young offenders aged 16 and 17, and a presumption against bail.
Bond University’s Dr Terry Goldsworthy said breach of bail would back up the state’s tougher new laws.
The Associate Professor said with the state’s introduction of GPS trackers and stricter bail conditions, there needed to be a consequence if young offenders breached those constraints.
“If you’re going to put those constraints in place, there needs to be a consequence if they breach those constraints,” Dr Goldsworthy said.
“At this point in time we don’t have that so it really makes a mockery of those actions they’ve put in place. It leaves police in an unenforceable position.”
He said if police catch a young offender out at night, with a GPS device on, in a stolen car, breaking their curfew and where the tracking device said they should be, the teen was just committing more offences.
“What are the instructions they are giving the police, what do they physically do with that child?” he said.
“How are they capturing that breach of bail, because there is no offence for them to record it on the system, so how is that information being collated?”
Dr Goldsworthy said it also made it more difficult to track breaches of bail, rather than having to refer to and cross check multiple documents.
He added the government had never really had a good explanation as to why it resisted the offence.
“It seems suitable for adult offenders who breach their bail, the issue is identical, the only issue I can see is the age issue.
“I would be curious on what basis and what argument the government is saying they won’t introduce it purely on regard to age.”
Dr Goldsworthy said the parliamentary inquiry when they removed the offence for young people had “very little substance” as to why it was no longer an offence.
“Except for comments that we don’t want young people in jail, but I don’t think that’s a relevant comment anyway,” he said.
“If you look at the current argument of raising the age of criminal culpability from 10 to 14 and have a look at the data we have from the government, on any average day in Queensland we have 20 children under the age of 14 in custody.
“Each year we deal with 10,000 offenders or more who are under the age of 14, so hardly any of that cohort are going into custody.
“One of the issues we have to recognise is the government has put in place GPS trackers, stricter bail conditions, an assumption you won’t get bail if you meet a certain criteria, there doesn’t appear to be any or many beds available to keep people in custody.
“I think last week we were told there were 12 beds left. If you’re going to restrict the ability of hardcore offenders … to get out, there has got to be somewhere to place them.
“If there is no where to place them, the courts are going to be hamstrung and we’re not going to be able to keep them in custody because there is nowhere for them to go.”
Originally published as Criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy says breach of bail would help police
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