The State Government will move to increase the use of alternative sentencing for young criminal offenders, with a bill to go before parliament next month.
The Youth Justice Administration Bill would expand home detention as a sentencing and early release option, and introduce a maximum age of 21 for offenders in youth detention.
Communities and Social Inclusion Minister Zoe Bettison said detention in the Adelaide Youth Training Centre should be a last resort for children and young people.
“The proposed legislation will support contemporary practices in young offender management,” she said.
“It also deals with the issue of people over the age of 18 in youth detention.
“(It sets) a maximum age of 21, periodical reviews of individual cases and preventing offenders returning to youth detention once they have served time in an adult prison.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion said introducing a maximum age for offenders housed in juvenile detention was becoming increasingly important because of improvements in forensic technology.
“Because forensic examination these days is so sophisticated, often the court will inform us that DNA testing has identified someone who may well be in their thirties, but has been identified with committing an offence when they were a youth.
“We’re not equipped to deal with people of that age.
“It becomes incredibly problematic if their offending, for example, may have been of a sexual nature, and then (there is a) potential risk for that older person being in our system.
“It’s very rare, but it does happen from time to time.
“At the moment there’s no real provision under legislation … to deal with that.
“This (bill) will cover that off.”
The Department of Communities and Social Inclusion currently negotiates case-by-case with Corrections to have adult offenders who are sentenced for crimes committed in their youth housed in adult prisons.
Currently, judges may sentence youth offenders to home detention for a maximum of six months.
The spokesperson said the limit would be lengthened to 12 months under the new legislation, giving judges more discretion when sentencing young offenders.
“Now that we’ve got new electronic GPS equipment, we think there’s opportunity to broaden (sentencing) options,” the spokesperson said.
“Because of the technology we have, the supervisory arrangements can be different, and we can look at, potentially, a staggered approach for young people, to test them in the community.
“It might be that they have day release to test … that they don’t breach any of their conditions, and then over time we could introduce more flexibility.”
The Government has previously indicated more alternative sentencing options for adult offenders.
The bill would also bring several laws dealing with youth in the criminal justice system under a single banner.
“We need a more streamlined legislative framework to exercise the government’s youth justice powers and functions,” said Bettison.
The State Government has previously flagged a move to widen the use of alternative sentencing for adult prisoners as it grapples with an overcrowded corrections system.
