Leanne Linard on Government’s balance to tackle youth crime

The State Government is committed to achieving a balance between safety, helping young people turn their lives around and holding serious repeat offenders to account, writes Minister for Youth Justice Leanne Linard.

Queensland Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard . Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Jack is a Townsville teenager who has never had anywhere to call home. To him this isn’t a sob story. This is simply his reality.

No home. No routine. No one to put cereal on the table before he heads out the door to school, if he attends school at all.

He began offending and came into regular contact with the youth justice system.

But he wanted a different story. After encouragement from youth justice staff, he agreed to enrol in one of the government’s most successful diversion programs, Transition 2 Success, which breaks the cycle of crime through hands-on training in a variety of areas, from construction and engineering to hospitality and landscaping.

Jack focused on basic foundation skills, where he worked on his literacy and numeracy and landed a job with a refrigeration company.

He changed his story.

The overwhelming majority of children and young people don’t commit crime and, of those who do, most will never come back into contact with the criminal justice system after a first offence.

However, a small cohort of serious repeat offenders, about 17 per cent of the 1 to 2 per cent of young Queenslanders who offend, is committing 50 per cent of youth crime.

Some of these young people may suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. They almost always come from difficult backgrounds where violence is the norm.

We have substantial evidence of what works to reduce youth offending and that means being tough on those young people who do come into contact with the youth justice system.

International research shows us that prevention programs are not only effective but cost-effective. For example, with our Transition 2 Success program, 67 per cent of participants did not commit any further offences in the following six months.

We have reintroduced court-ordered restorative justice conferencing – 77 per cent of participants who completed a youth justice conference did not reoffend within six months.

The Palaszczuk government is committed to working with police, stakeholders and the community to achieve a balance between safety, helping young people turn their lives around and holding serious repeat offenders to account.

First and foremost, though, our focus is, and always will be, community safety.

Leanne Linard is Minister for Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs

Originally published as Leanne Linard on Government’s balance to tackle youth crime