Last Friday, after a 15-hour sitting period, the state Labor government’s “toughest bail laws ever” passed both houses of parliament. Responding to community concern and fear, pressure from the opposition, media outlets, and in particular, the Herald Sun and police chief commissioner, Shane Patton, Jacinta Allan’s proposed changes to the bail act will force courts to treat children accused of serious crimes like adults, scrap the principle of remand as a "last resort" for accused youth, and reintroduce the offence of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail (CIOWB).
While community safety is of utmost importance, and everyone deserves to feel safe in their communities and in their homes, it is important to note that steering more young people into detention earlier is actually likely to increase the amount of crime in the community in the medium and long term. There is a tremendous amount of evidence that the younger a person is when they are first detained, the more likely they are to become entrenched in a life of frequent criminality.
It's worth remembering that CIOWB whilst on bail was repealed, and many of the stringent hurdles in the granting of bail removed or lessened last year, as a result of the tragic death of Veronica Nelson. Veronica was a strong Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung and Yorta Yorta Woman who died in the most horrific of circumstances whilst in custody for minor shoplifting offences. You can read the coroner's report here, but be warned, it makes for harrowing reading.
Veronica's mother and her partner, Aunty Donna and Uncle Percy, campaigned tirelessly and with dignity in a time of grief to affect these bail reforms referred to as Poccum’s Law in memory of Veronica. A significant win for justice, but an all too high cost, that is all the more galling given that the final 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report’s 339 recommendations remain largely unimplemented.
As previous similar bail reforms have invariably shown, these changes will disproportionately affect women, children, aboriginal communities, and other vulnerable groups that are often part of the cohort we all care for here at First Step.
- Morgan Adams, First Step Legal Practice Principal
(image source: National Indigenous Times)
