Youth bail houses gone under tough LNP youth justice policy
A southside community’s plea for a crackdown on youth crime has been heard with the LNP launching a tough juvenile justice policy which includes abolishing two youth bail houses in Logan.
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TWO youth bail houses, at secret locations in Logan, will be scrapped if the LNP wins the October election.
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LNP deputy Leader Tim Mander made the announcement this morning saying some of the $70 million the government spends on youth detention and the bail houses would be redirected to local communities hit by a youth crime wave.
In Logan, there are youth bail houses, or Supervised Community Accommodation, at secret locations at Carbrook where there have been 36 young people living since 2017 and at Logan Reserve where 21 youths have lived.
An independent evaluation of the State Government’s Supervised Community Accommodation last year found bail houses cost taxpayers about $2600 a day per teenager.
It was estimated that youth bail houses would cost Queensland taxpayers more than $70 million by 2022/23.
Mr Mander said an LNP government would use that money in communities hit by juvenile crime and increase penalties for juvenile offenders who breached bail conditions.
“What’s happening at the moment is not working,” he said.
“Police are already stretched and the problem is the catch-and-release program where people go in and out of the courts, no matter how many times they have offended.
“ … We need people on call all the time, around the clock, to monitor these people on bail, who are going and reoffending.
“We will bring back breach of bail as an offence and scrap Labor’s catch and release laws.”
Mr Mander said the LNP plan would require a total restructure of the Youth Justice Department so it would run around the clock and on weekends, when many of the crimes were occurring.
Mr Mander was speaking out after LNP figures showed 121 of the 145 offenders who were part of the bail house program had committed more crime after leaving.
An avalanche of complaints from residents in Springwood, Rochedale South and Bethania about youth crime resulted in a range of community meetings with police, MPs and residents.
Southside residents from the Springwood electorate Vivian McDermott and Janine Grey, started a petition in May after both said they had crimes committed against them by youths out on bail or already known to police.
They joined forces with the southside community and launched a petition calling on the state government to introduce tougher penalties for repeat juvenile offenders including mandatory DNA testing and ankle bracelets.
Ms Grey, who has changed her name for fear of retribution, said her anger was sparked after her family’s Rochedale South home was broken into and two cars stolen by two teenage offenders both on bail for a range of other crimes.
“The kids who broke into my house were already out on bail but according to the law minors can’t be prosecuted for breaching bail conditions,” she said.
“If these kids were locked up I would still have my car and feel safe in my own house.
“These kids know the youth justice system and are using and abusing it.
“Our police are frustrated that they dealing with the same youths over and over again.
“We believe juvenile crime statistics, which police use to allocate resources, are not accurate.”
The southside residents’ anger was acted on when the state government announced a five-point action plan in May to crack down on youth crime.
Part of that strategy was to roll out 10 community-based crime action committees, including one in Logan, which will be run in conjunction with Logan Together.
It also included tougher penalties for those breaching bail conditions, allowing police to contest inappropriate bail decisions and setting up a Police Strike Team of youth justice workers for high-risk offenders.
Under the government plan, the state government introduced a police strike team to patrol streets in unmarked cars looking to arrest kids breaking the law.
The taskforce hit Logan suburbs after statistics in March showed the majority of juvenile crimes were committed by a small, hard-core group of repeat offenders.
Queensland Police Service figures released in February showed a 30 per cent drop in the number of young offenders across the state since 2010 with repeat offenders committing 44 per cent of all youth crimes.
Police Minister Mark Ryan, speaking to media this morning, said the LNP plan would not work and there was no silver bullet.
He said a KPMG report from five years ago showed the LNP’s “boot camp” style of rehabilitation was not working as huge numbers of young people reoffended.
Mr Ryan said the government was working with youth criminals to solve some of their family problems and was working with children and their months in the first 1000 days of their lives.
“We’ve been significantly reforming the youth justice system since we got into power,” he said.
“We have a system that means those who have committed a crime are caught and dealt with.
“The big challenge … is how you break the cycle of youth offending.”
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The government penalties introduced in May hit a nerve in the community.
Residents said they were not tough enough but Griffith University Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Ross Homel said his evidence showed incarceration and harsher bail conditions led to a 12 per cent hike in crime
Professor Homel called for a holistic treatment process, where the offending child would not be incarcerated or kept in a “bail house”.
“I have no faith in the youth justice system as a deterrent,” Professor Homel said. “What I do have faith in is treatment to focus on the risk factors which lead to the crime – locking a child up is not the answer.”
He suggested a child justice hub where offenders would be admitted for intensive treatment with police, mentors, mental health professionals, teachers and doctors all under the one roof.
Parents, home and family life would also be investigated as part of the treatment.
Springwood LNP candidate Kirrily Boulton said youth bail houses were breeding grounds for crime and should be abolished as they were costing taxpayers more than $70million.
“At least half of the youths in bail houses have committed nine offences and bail houses have failed to reduce offending rates,” she said.
“They are a costly and failed experiment. The LNP will close youth bail houses as part of our plan to overhaul Labor’s failed youth justice system.”
Rochedale South residents held meetings with police and politicians to discuss why crime was spiralling out of control in their suburb and why youth bail houses at Carbrook and Logan Reserve had not been overhauled.
The residents’ group took their anger to Springwood MP Mick de Brenni after finding there were no penalties for juveniles breaking bail and realising that community orders were not being enforced.
They also raised concerns about tenants at a private rental house in Esma St, Rochedale South.
Ms McDermott believed she was attacked by members of the gang, which has become notorious for documenting their exploits on social media.
Members brazenly share selfies on Instagram inside stolen prestige cars, speedos hitting 200km/h, or with illicit drugs and wads of cash.
The youths, some as young as 11, hide behind clown masks or smiley faces, often tagging their posts with “FTP”, or “f**k the police”
It was the second Logan community to call on police to increase patrols of their suburbs, after residents at Bethania successfully protested about community disruption from two Department of Housing houses in January.
Police were on high alert across the southside in March after 14-year-old boys from Logan were charged with murder when a 15-year-old boy died from stab wounds in Redcliffe.