News location:

Canberra Today 17°/20° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Kikkert unveils a ‘serious’ information gap

THE Liberals are calling on the ACT government to establish a system recording the number of children who serve a custodial sentence at an adult prison after doing time at Bimberi Youth Detention Centre.

Elizabeth Kikkert
Shadow Minister for Families, Youth and Community Services Elizabeth Kikkert says there is currently nothing in place keeping a record of youth detainees who go on to serve a custodial sentence at the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

“Recidivism is a key indicator of the effectiveness of juvenile justice interventions,” Mrs Kikkert says. 

“This is a serious information gap that undermines the value of the rehabilitation process. Can there be genuine confidence in the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process when there is no method in place to track its long-term impact on young people’s lives?  

“This is beyond disappointing. Today in the Legislative Assembly, I will call on the government to value the rehabilitation process by tracking children who have done a stint at Bimberi and yet end up at the AMC later in life.

“Specifically, I am asking the government to establish a mechanism that will allow for the robust collection and sharing of this information by the beginning of the 2018–19 reporting year.

“Youth detention in the ACT has a troubling record going back many years. It is imperative that we can accurately assess if what is currently happening in our only detention centre is actually working as designed.

“The information that I am asking the government to record will give authorities a better understanding of the effectiveness of juvenile rehabilitation programs and the long-term impact of the youth detention culture.”

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews