Crack down on young criminal reoffenders in Townsville

A core group of high risk, repeat juvenile offenders will be targeted under a range of tough new measures to be rolled out in Townsville from early next year.

The Community Youth Response forms part of the Palaszczuk Government’s five point plan to tackle youth crime, and will ramp up efforts through the courts, intensive case management, diversion and community services, education and training, and cultural mentoring. 

Minister Assisting the Premier on North Queensland Coralee O’Rourke said the new measures would build on the work of the Stronger Communities Action Group, taking aim at a core group of 10-16 year old offenders who were responsible for up to half of all youth crime in Townsville.

“I have listened to the community’s concerns around crime, and one of the things I keep hearing is the importance of holding young offenders to account,” Mrs O’Rourke said.

“A key feature of this new, targeted approach will see young offenders being accountable for the crimes they commit, and giving something back to the community they have taken from,” she said.

“Through our new measures, young repeat offenders will be allocated to a court list to allow them to be more closely managed by an experienced Children’s Court magistrate. 

“This will involve the magistrate dealing directly with these cases, and looking more closely at the individual circumstances of the young person, and applying penalties that fit their crime.

“For example, where a young person has committed property damage, the magistrate will be able to consider an order where the offender must help fix the damage they caused.”

Member for Townsville Scott Stewart said the new plan aimed to deal with repeat offenders in a more targeted way, while tackling the complex causes of youth crime.

“We know many of these kids come from broken homes with violence, drug and alcohol abuse, or mental health issues, they’ve got limited family support and don’t go to school,” Mr Stewart said.

“We are implementing intensive, individually tailored support services to address these issues, with the help of a range of government agencies, NGOs and community groups,” he said.

“Dedicated case managers will work intensively with young people and their families to help arrange counselling and other specialist referrals to deal with alcohol and drug dependency and mental health issues. 

“The intensive case management model has been successfully trialled in Caboolture and has been effective in reducing re-offending, and I hope we will start to see similar results here in Townsville.”

Other key elements of the new approach include a court stakeholder steering committee and a youth collaborative panel.  The steering committee will be led by the magistrate and will include representatives from key government and non-government agencies.  The group will work together to provide strategic direction and support to this initiative. 

The youth collaborative panel will consist of government and nongovernment partners and will work together to ensure the services required to respond to the individual needs of the high risk young people on this new court list are available.

Member for Thuringowa Aaron Harper said many young people turned to crime out of boredom, so it was important to provide community services and programs to steer them away from offending.

“Programs such as Project Booyah are already doing great work locally diverting young people in Townsville away from offending, achieving a 67 per cent reduction in re-offending at their nine sites across the state,” Mr Harper said.

“After a successful two year trial, I’m pleased to say Project Booyah will now be funded on a permanent basis, providing adventure-based learning, social skills, community and family interventions, mentoring, youth support and scholarships to young people.

“We also know the power of culturally appropriate programs. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families will now have access to a new community-run Family Wellbeing Service, as well as cultural mentoring through Uncle Alfred’s Men’s Group and the Townsville Aboriginal and Islanders Health Services.”

Mrs O’Rourke said education and training were key to giving young people more opportunities to lead a meaningful life and contributing to the community.

“Magistrates will actually be able to order young offenders to participate in education and training programs under our new initiatives,” she said.

“We are boosting the Youth Justice Transition 2 Success program, which is an alternative training program for young people who are disengaged with mainstream schools, as well as alternative education approaches such as flexi schools.

“Through all of these measures, we will complement the work of local police and the Stronger Communities Action Group to stamp out crime.”

More information about the new Community Youth Response is available on the Townsville Stronger Communities website: www.qld.gov.au/townsville 

Media Contact:                                  Minister O’Rourke’s office                  3719 7170