Cairns youth crime: families support bail conditions for youth offenders, justice review finds

Cairns is leading the state for families willing to support youth offenders in meeting their bail conditions, but advocates say it’s meaningless unless more is done to help them with basic needs.

Cairns is leading the state in the rate of families willing to step up and support youth offenders meet bail conditions, but advocacy organisations say it will have little impact on reducing reoffending until policymakers look at the whole “broken system”.

Findings in the Atkinson review of youth justice reforms released this week revealed 78 per cent of Cairns parents and guardians were willing to support their child charged with a crime between May and October last year, compared with a statewide average of 54 per cent.

When deciding whether to grant bail, the courts take into account whether a parent or guardian is willing to support their child to meet their bail conditions, and report any instances of noncompliance.

PeakCare’s Lindsay Wegener says willingness to support bail means little when families are struggling with their basic needs. Picture: Adam Armstrong

PeakCare Queensland executive director Lindsay Wegener said the high willingness to support in Cairns was something to be celebrated.

“That’s a very good thing for Cairns that there are families committed to their children and willing to do what they need to do to support them through this difficult period in their life,” Mr Wegener said.

But the child protection peak body warned families’ willingness to support would do little to curb crime unless poverty, affordable housing and domestic violence were also addressed.

“One in six Queensland children are living below the poverty line … It’s very difficult to talk to a mother about her son’s behaviour if she’s also thinking, ‘I’ve got nowhere to live tonight, I’ve got no way of being able to afford enough food for tonight’,” Mr Wegener said.

“It’s very difficult for them to focus on (meeting bail conditions) if all of those very, very basic needs can’t be met within the family.”

The Atkinson report suggested some families were unable or uninterested in helping their children stick to court mandates.

Director of the Youth Affairs Network Queensland Siyavash Doostkhah said the blame was misdirected.

“That’s a lot of finger pointing by the Atkinson report to again make the problem that there is something deficient in those young people or their families,” Mr Doostkhah said.

“The fingers should be pointing at the people who actually are the decision makers and who control the purse strings to say, ‘you’re not making the right decisions’.

“What have you done to make sure that these young people are growing up in communities where they’ve got access to food, health, housing, security?

“A better way of being tough on crime is about really targeting the causes of crime,” he said.

Queensland Children's Commissioner Natalie Lewis says more help is needed for families willing to support youth offenders meet bail requirements. Picture: David Clark

The Queensland Family and Child Commission’s Natalie Lewis said judges took many concerns into account when deciding whether to grant bail, including risk to community and likelihood of reoffending, alongside suitable family support.

“There might be high willingness from families, but that’s only one of the factors,” Ms Lewis said.

“Courts look at things like if the parents are home at night, their capacity to provide supervision during the evening, which is a high-risk time for youth offending.”

With strict requirements already needing to be met before bail was granted, Ms Lewis said more help was needed for families who met those requirements and were willing to step up.

“Families can have the best intentions but realistically parents might be struggling to communicate with their kids, or set rules or boundaries,” she said.

“Instead of dismissing that as a viable option, let’s bring in supports to help them make it work.”

Originally published as Cairns youth crime: families support bail conditions for youth offenders, justice review finds