Where’s the justice for ‘Justin’? reform advocates are asking

When a small Aboriginal boy stood in court in July 2003 accused of stealing a car, the judiciary had a dilemma.

When a small Aboriginal boy stood in the Perth Children’s Court in July 2003 accused of stealing a car, the judiciary had a dilemma on its hands.

The 14-year-old was a tearaway, a ward of the state and solvent sniffer with a cognitive impairment that meant he’d already been deemed unfit to plead to any criminal charge. There were just two extreme options for the court that day under West Australian law: let the boy walk free or jail him indefinitely under the state’s Mentally Impaired Accused Act. The court let him go.

The following month, on August 13, 2003, police were patrolling in Perth’s south when they saw the boy driving another stolen car and this time there were four other kids on board. The boy, so small for his age he could barely see over the steering wheel, ran a red light and ploughed into a ute. One of his passengers, his 12-year-old cousin, was killed.

The Gallop Labor government was determined this would not be another debate about police pursuit policy. Then premier Geoff Gallop called on Aboriginal leaders to stop blaming historical injustices for youth crime, and urged Aboriginal parents to take more responsibility for their kids.

The then and again now Police Minister Michelle Roberts declared the boy must be locked up forever.

Now 28, he has been incarcerated ever since.

Justice advocates call him “Jason” because they are legally not allowed to name anyone charged as a juvenile.

His case drifts in and out of the news each time a politician floats reform of the act that put him in jail.