IN an open letter to the ACT government, a collective group of local legal, human rights and service delivery organisations are seeking urgent action to raise the age of criminal responsibility in the ACT.

Currently in the ACT, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, put before a court and detained in youth detention facilities.

“As organisations, we are concerned about the damaging effects of incarceration on children and young people, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and the potentially lifelong ramifications of early contact with the criminal legal system,” the letter says. 

“We are aware that the ‘Age of Criminal Responsibility Working Group Review’ will be presented at the Council of Attorneys-General on 27 July 2020. We understand that there will be discussion about raising the age of minimum criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 14 years old. 

“As the service providers and organisations who work with children and young people, and who would be primarily impacted by such a change, we strongly support raising the age to 14 years old and keeping children out of prisons. We should be supporting kids to thrive in family, community and culture, not forcing them into the quicksand of the criminal legal system.” 

Signed by a group of prominent Canberrans such as the ACT Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Helen Watchirs, the ACT Public Advocate and Children and Young People commissioner, Jodie Griffiths-Cook, the executive director of the Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation, Kim Davison, and the ACT Law Society president, Chris Donohue, collectively they urge the government to lead the nation on this issue. 

ACTCOSS CEO Dr Emma Campbell says: “There is substantial medical and social research to support raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.”

“Criminalising children as young as 10 can lead to a lifetime of harmful consequences, including sustained contact with the justice system,” she says. 

“The justice system is not rehabilitative, therapeutic or trauma-informed – it does not and cannot address the needs of children. It is a community failure when children are involved in crime, and we should respond with community solutions.”