Msgr David Cappo, the Adelaide priest behind a ground-breaking report on juvenile crime, has urged South Australia’s Malinauskas Government to re-look at the report’s recommendations. Source: The Southern Cross.
There is a loud call to lock up more young people who have committed serious crime, so that we can keep the South Australian community safe.
I agree that there is a small group of young hard-core offenders who will need to be in secure care for a time for community safety, and intense supervision and support when released.
But something is very wrong, when, as I was recently told, there are more than 60 juveniles in secure care in South Australia, 60 per cent of whom are Aboriginal youths and 30 per cent from African countries. Are all of these young people serious criminal offenders? And what is behind such alarming percentages and racial groups?
I urge the community of South Australia to be in solidarity with its fellow citizens of all racial backgrounds as we work this through. Instead of blame and scapegoating, let’s work this out for the common good of all.
In 2007, as the state’s Social Inclusion Commissioner, I delivered for the Rann government a report titled To Break the Cycle: Prevention and rehabilitation responses to serious repeat offending by young people.
In a recent radio interview, Shona Reid, an Aboriginal leader and the Guardian for Children and Young People in SA, mentioned my report and suggested that the Government take a good look at its recommendations, many of which have never been implemented.
I agree with her. It is a 61-page report with 46 recommendations. And it has the moral authority of the community through serious community consultation with business owners, families, carers, police, judiciary, community organisations, Aboriginal leadership, and young offenders.
The 46 recommendations include hard ones such as strengthening the requirement to take account of community safety when sentencing, with responses to this recommendation to be coupled with an increase in rehabilitation programs; some high-level repeat and serious offenders could be treated as adults considering the gravity of the offence; and imposing harsher penalties on adults who commit crimes in the presence of young people.
I hope that someone in the Malinauskas Government can find the time to read the 2007 report. It is still relevant and speaks to the common good of all in South Australia.
– Msgr David Cappo is a former vicar general of the Adelaide Archdiocese and was social inclusion chair/commissioner from 2002-2011. He currently works in mental health reform in East Africa.
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Never give up – call for united action on juvenile crime (The Southern Cross)
