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Youth crims breach bail amid ankle monitor glitches

Youth Justice stakeholders have raised the alarm over young criminals not having safe places to charge ankle monitoring devices or sufficient Wi-Fi to connect to the tracking program.

Juvenile crims are breaching bail due to technical issues with ankle monitors.
Juvenile crims are breaching bail due to technical issues with ankle monitors.

A third of juvenile offenders wearing court ordered electronic ankle monitors are breaching bail requirements due to technological or battery failures.

Youth Justice stakeholders have raised the alarm over young criminals not having safe places to charge their ankle devices or sufficient Wi-Fi and cellular connection needed to connect the monitors to the tracking program.

Electronic monitoring was introduced as an alternative to detention in 2021 and applies as a bail option for repeat offenders committing crimes like armed robbery, break ins, shoplifting, dangerous driving and assault.

But youth services argue greater investment is needed in early intervention, housing, and support services to address the root causes of youth crime as many serious repeat offenders don’t make bail.

Youth Justice Department Director-General Bob Gee told revealed that the program saw a sharp increase in monitored offenders, rising from 54 in September to 94 in February under the LNP government.

Nearly half reoffended, with only 79 per cent of monitored youth having their orders revoked.

Despite the rising numbers, Mr Gee told a parliament committee on Monday that there were still too few offenders in the program for the department to draw conclusive results on its effectiveness.

PeakCare acting chief executive Gayle Walters said it was not appropriate to offer serious repeat offenders electronic monitoring devices if they did not have intensive support to help them break away from crime circles.

“Submissions from the Queensland police service and Queensland corrective services stated that over a third of the breaches and call outs that police … attend were due to battery failure or technological failure, not because the young person had actually breached,” she said.

“The reality has to be is can this young person actually manage the device, have they got a safe and secure place to charge that every single day?”

“If we see that a third of our young people living in homeless situations, they don't have that capacity.”

According to Youth Justice Census Data, approximately 30 per cent of children in youth detention centres lack suitable housing, half experiencing domestic and family violence, and another 44 per cent having mental health disorders.

The Queensland Police Service is responsible for fitting and removing the devices, while Queensland Corrective Services oversees real-time monitoring of alerts, contacting youth offenders if they see an ankle monitor battery going flat. Mr Gee was unable to tell the committee how much the state was spending on the program, but said ankle bracelet made up a small fraction of overall youth justice spending.

An additional $485m is set to fund LNP youth early intervention and bail programs over the next four years -none of which have been implemented since the Making Queensland Safer laws were passed in December.

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Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-qld/youth-crims-breach-bail-amid-ankle-monitor-glitches/news-story/36f44235bc3ed9b098c1e7a55b4386c5