Wrong way, go back on youth justice

The plan also ignores the findings of its own inquiry by former police commissioner Bob Atkinson in 2018, as well as the mountains of evidence from around the world about the best ways to reduce youth crime.

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As the above statistics indicate, and as Assistant Police Commissioner and head of the youth taskforce Cheryl Scanlon notably has observed, central to the solution is the child protection system for thousands of young people in out-of-home care including foster care, kinship care or residential agency care.

These young people are some of our most vulnerable citizens, many of them damaged by family breakdown, violence, abuse or homelessness.

Mum can’t look after you, dad doesn’t want you and, once you turn 18, even the state…