Electronic ankle bracelets are not preventing young people from reoffending, Queensland Police documents reveal.
The briefing paper, which was tabled before the Youth Justice Reform Select Committee, found one third of young offenders violated bail while being monitored.
Those violations included unlawful use of a motor vehicle, deprivation of liberty, and straying outside their exclusion zones.
It found 28 young offenders had gone through the trial program since it was introduced in May 2021 amid overcrowding in detention centres.
The program was available in Toowoomba, Cairns and Mount Isa this year, but there were no participants.
“This trial will continue to ensure there is sufficient data and … a minimum sample size to enable a thorough assessment of the initiative performance,” the briefing paper says.
The electronic monitoring devices were issued as part of a raft of state government reforms to toughen penalties for youth offenders.
A University of Queensland submission to the committee found no evidence that electronic monitoring led to lower recidivism rates.
The report’s lead author Tamara Walsh said the evidence suggested that strict monitoring could actually make recidivism worse.
“Importantly, there is no evidence that strict monitoring and arresting young people when they breach bail conditions reduces reoffending,” she said.
“Increasing the level of monitoring and surveillance over these children might actually entrap them within the system we are wanting them to exit.
But activist group Voice for Victims has put in a submission calling for a “zero-tolerance” approach to youth crime.
Voice for Victims suggested an alternative approach in a submission written by former Queensland Corrective Services Commissioner Keith Hamburger.
He said children would seldom be let out on bail at all under their proposed model.
Under the group’s proposed system, children would be put into centres, camps, or treatment facilities and kept under 24/7 supervision.
Under the group’s proposed system, children would be put into centres, camps, or treatment facilities and kept under 24/7 supervision.
)ABC)
