Youth Justice
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Alternative diversion model for children under the raised minimum age of criminal responsibility
3rd Apr 2024 -
Reversal of youth bail law plans in Victoria will cause harm
20th Mar 2024The Victorian government’s announcement that it will not go ahead with plans to implement a presumption of bail for children will cause harm to young people and will not reduce crime, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Commission of Inquiry report welcome but proposed Pontville site for detention centre is ‘appalling’
26th Sep 2023The Australian Lawyers Alliance welcomes many of the recommendations in the report released today from the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings, but strongly objects to the Government’s plan to develop a youth detention centre in Pontville.
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ALA joins calls for immediate closure of Ashley Youth Detention Centre
15th Sep 2023The Australian Lawyers Alliance has joined with a coalition of other organisations to urge the Tasmanian Government to immediately release all children currently detained at Ashley Youth Detention Centre to prevent further harm to their safety and wellbeing.
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Qld youth justice law changes: breaches govt’s obligation to put interests of children first
25th Aug 2023The changes made to Queensland’s youth justice laws yesterday which mean that children can be held in adult police watch houses indefinitely are cruel and will endanger the wellbeing of vulnerable members of the community, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Justice (Age of Criminal Responsibility) Legislation Amendment Bill 2023
20th Jun 2023 -
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the justice system
1st Jun 2023The youth justice system in WA is broken, but there are simple solutions, writes Alice Barter of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, raising her voice to speak on behalf of young clients at Banksia Hill Detention Centre and Unit 18, who have been ‘unnecessarily criminalised due to trauma, poverty, disability, racism and over-policing’.
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Strengthening Community Safety Bill 2023
10th Mar 2023 -
National legal association condemns plan for new youth detention centre in Cairns
9th Dec 2022A new youth detention centre in Cairns will not work to lower the rate of crime in the region, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance.
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Federal leadership urgently needed to solve national youth justice crisis
17th Nov 2022Federal Government leadership and a cohesive new national approach to ensuring that the justice system stops the systemic abuse of children in detention is urgently needed, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance.
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Children and the justice system
8th Sep 2022'Only five years after the landmark Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse exposed the shocking abuse of children and young people across this nation over decades, one is tempted to say plus ça change', writes Greg Barns SC.
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Raising the age of detention to 14 years does not go far enough
8th Jun 2022Plans announced today to raise the age of detention in Tasmania do not go far enough to address the issues in the youth justice system, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Banksia Hill conditions are an appalling breach of human rights: reform is urgent
19th Apr 2022Conditions at Banksia Hill youth detention facility indicate clear breaches of children’s human rights and show that little has been learnt from the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Royal Commission, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Age of criminal responsibility must not be lower than 14 years
15th Nov 2021The age of criminal responsibility in Australia must be raised to at least 14 years as recommended by the United Nations.
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ALA welcomes closure of Ashley Youth Detention Centre
9th Sep 2021The Government’s decision to close the Ashley Youth Detention Centre has been welcomed by lawyers who say that it is imperative that this opportunity for a complete overhaul of the youth justice system in Tasmania is not squandered.
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Proposed NT youth justice laws are a backward step & will not make the community safer
11th May 2021The Youth Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 being proposed by the NT Government is a backwards step that contradicts all the principles of effective youth justice, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Proposed youth justice reforms in NT will not make the community safer
24th Mar 2021The reforms to youth justice laws proposed by the Northern Territory government yesterday will not make communities safer and contradict the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the detention of children in the NT, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Juvenile crime laws will not make communities safer
22nd Mar 2021The measures proposed in the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 will not make communities safer, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) in a submission to the Queensland government.
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Protecting everyone’s rights benefits us all
11th Mar 2021Australia’s human rights performance was closely scrutinised in the UN’s recent Universal Periodic Review. Hugh de Kretser discusses the review’s recommendations to improve our rights protection, and outlines its concerns on issues including Australia’s low age of criminal responsibility, economic hardship during COVID-19, the Government’s response to climate change, and the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and of refugees and people seeking asylum.
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Youth crime crackdown will not create safer Queensland communities
9th Feb 2021Measures announced today designed to address youth crime will not work to make the community safer, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Don Dale ruling a strong message against use of force on children
11th Jun 2020Greg Barns discusses the High Court’s decision, on 3 June, that the use of tear gas on four youths at the NT’s Don Dale detention centre was unlawful. He explores the implications of this decision, suggesting that it illustrates the need for discussion about changing the culture of dealing with young people who intersect with the criminal justice system.
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High Court Don Dale ruling: timely reminder that police & prison officers need to follow the law
3rd Jun 2020Today’s High Court decision, which found that the tear-gassing of four teenagers in Darwin's Don Dale Youth Detention Centre was unlawful, holds the prison system to account for the inhumane treatment of the teenagers in their care.
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Lawyers urge Council of Attorney Generals to raise age of criminal responsibility
18th Feb 2020The age of criminal responsibility must be raised to 14 years in accordance with the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) has told the Council of Attorney Generals in a submission today.
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Solitary confinement report shows alarming breach of duty of care: State liable for compensation
6th Sep 2019The state has breached its duty of care and could be liable for millions of dollars in compensation, says the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) in response to the alarming findings disclosed in the recent Victorian Ombudsman’s report into the use of solitary confinement in youth detention facilities.
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Age of criminal responsibility must be raised in current Youth Justice Amendment Bill
27th May 2019The age of criminal responsibility in the NT should have been raised as part of the Youth Justice and Related Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 that is currently under review, say lawyers.
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Treatment of young people in detention is a national crisis, say lawyers
13th May 2019Tonight’s Four Corners episode showing children locked up in adult watch-houses in Queensland makes it clear that Australia is failing in its duty of care to young people, according to the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
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Imprisoning children – what is going wrong?
25th Aug 2016'You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view' - Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird may have very simply summarised how we should treat children who act out. In light of this, Zoe Le Quesne discusses what is going wrong in the youth justice system, and why it needs to change.
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