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Aboriginal Law Bulletin

Aboriginal Law Bulletin (ALB)
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Brown, Stewart --- "Lollies, Coins, Computer Games and Criminality? Juvenile Justice in Alice" [1990] AboriginalLawB 21; (1990) 1(44) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 10


Lollies, Coins, Computer Games and Criminality?
Juvenile Justice in Alice

by Stewart Brown

Solicitors and field workers employed at (CAALAS)[1] have noticed a marked increase in the numbers of juvenile offenders being brought before the courts in central Australia. Alice Springs is a modem, provincial centre in the midst of a vast, under-resourced and remote hinterland. It is the only town of any size in Central Australia and as a result all roads lead to Alice Springs. The town is well serviced with shops, recreational amenities and perhaps regrettably the highest concentration of liquor outlets per head of population in the country.

Alice Springs provides the glamour and excitement of a 'big town'. It is the bright lights, Las Vegas in the bush, offering an urban environment vastly different to that of the outstation or remote community. Families come to town to shop, socialise and holiday. Visiting families often stay in town camps where alcohol is freely available and pressure to conform and drink are considerable. Transport back home maybe delayed or difficult to arrange for financial reasons. Families become stranded in town and subject to its destructive influences.

Against such a background town provides temptations that are difficult to resist. By far the most common offences are theft related: unlawful entry and stealing, interference with motor cars and criminal damage. The items stolen are usually of little value, food, lollies, soft drinks and coins which are used to play computer games, being the most common items taken.

Local media campaigns for the authorities to "get tough on crime" appear to be impacting on the number of juveniles brought before the courts. The police seem reluctant to use cautions for young offenders.

In the lead up to Territory elections, local politicians in search of votes have played on the fears of the prejudiced and ill-informed. Election proposals included such diverse (and impractical) suggestions as lobbying the Commonwealth Government to enact legislation to make it illegal for Aboriginal people to transfer social security entitlements from their home communities to Alice Springs and a proposal that the parents of young offenders convicted by the courts be fined. This latter proposal is expected to become law during the next sitting of the Territory's Legislative Assembly. CAALAS is opposed to such legislation. The proposed fines will be a double penalty and will constitute a meaningless exercise against the background of social dislocation and dispossession faced by many offenders in Alice Springs. Such monetary penalties can only result in greater financial hardship on a section of the community least able to bear it.

How has the magistracy responded to greater numbers of offenders coming before the courts and calls from sections of the community for harsher penalties? In the NT as in most Australian states, the juvenile courts have a range of sentencing options:

The courts have responded by resorting more frequently to deprivation of liberty as a sanction and the periods of detention appear to be growing in duration. There appears to be a lack of flexibility and imagination in the Juvenile Court magistracy's creation and implementation of dispositions. This inflexibility appears to flow from a reluctance to involve Aboriginal people in the formulation of dispositions and an unwillingness to seek advice from the Aboriginal community as to how it perceives young offenders should be dealt with.

Of great concern to CAALAS is the perception amongst its staff that there is an over-use of suspended sentences in respect of young Aboriginal offenders. Often the imposition of such sentences is unrealistic given the high probability of re-offending in a community such as Alice Springs. When such sentences are breached the suspended sentence is activated in addition to a fresh sentence for the new matter. Thus ironically, the wish of the earlier sentencer to avoid a custodial disposition is thwarted and the resulting sentence becomes higher.

Such concerns are not new to practicioners, judges and magistrates in the'Northern Territory. In 1977, Muirhead J. said:

The questions which must be paramount in dealing with juvenile offenders are how best to put an end to their conduct, how best to educate, how best to channel their activities along healthy, law abiding lines? It is only when a solution along these lines can be achieved that the community receives true protection. To impose custodial penalties on restless children of 14 which may have the effect of turning them into recidivists by the time they are 16, is very much against the policy of the law as expressed in many authorities in this country and elsewhere. Furthermore, in dealing with Aboriginal children one must not overlook the terrible social problems they face. They are growing up in an environment of confusion. They see many of their people beset by the problems of alcohol, they sense conflict and dilemma when they find the strict but community based cultural tradition of their people, their customs and philosophies set in competition with more tempting short-term inducements of our society.

In short, the young Aboriginal is a child who requires tremendous care and attention, much thought, much consideration. Seldom is anything solved by putting them in prison.[2]

Regrettably detention is seen too often as the quick fix to juvenile Aboriginal offending. The major institution for the detention of juveniles within the Northern Territory is Giles House in Alice Springs. This provides accommodation for Detainees up to the°' age of 17. Offenders over 17 are regarded as being adults and as such are sentenced to adult prisons, there being no youth training facilities or the like within the Northern Territory. This is in itself a cause for concern.

The danger of institutions like Giles House is that they lead to the offender becoming accustomed and de-sensitized to the effects of detention. Detention becomes an acceptable part of life and indeed may become regarded as part of the rites of passage of youth into adulthood.

If the high rates of Aboriginal juvenile detention within Central Australia are to be addressed there must be greater involvement of Aboriginal people in decision making in the juvenile courts and in the implementation and administration of community based correction schemes.


[1] CAALAS is the Central Australian Legal Aid Service.

[2] Jabaltjari v Hammersley (1977) 15 ALR 94 at p98


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