University Assignment: Youth Detention Center Proposal Briefing Paper

This briefing paper examines a proposal to allocate $25 million to a state fund for the development of a new youth detention center in Australia. The paper supports the proposal, arguing that it provides opportunities for juveniles to move towards positive outcomes, and aligns with a remoralization strategy. The paper provides background on rising youth crime rates, socio-cultural factors influencing juvenile delinquency, and the relevance of welfarism in youth governance. The analysis considers the impact of the proposal on various groups of young people, including ethnic minority and indigenous juvenile offenders, emphasizing the importance of monitoring and ensuring the provision of appropriate facilities. The paper recommends the implementation of government projects like "Respect" and the involvement of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to support the rehabilitation and well-being of detained youth, ultimately aiming to reduce crime rates and improve the morality of young people. The report is based on research and analysis of the proposal and concludes that the proposed change is a good initiative.

Assessment 3: Professional Task (Briefing Paper)
Introduction
This paper is describing proposal of allocating $25 million to State fund for developing new
youth detention centre.
Statement of Proposed change: State Government of Australia needs to allocate $25
Million to State fund for development of detention center for youth.
This proposal is being supported in this study as it is for providing opportunity to juveniles to
move towards positivity. Respect and Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) are
two government authorities that help in developing good manners and mentality in young
people. This study is including recommendation to engage Respect and AIHW to
conduct different programs and gather funds for detention centre for young people.
Background
The development of new youth detention center in essential for government because many
children in Australia are residing in risk environment. As stated by Fitz-Gibbon (2018),
antisocial behaviour increases in a child due to factors like culture and economy. Children
from poor economic background and living in aggressive environment develop a criminal
mentality in them. Australian Institute of Criminology research reveals offending by children
aged 10 to 14 rose 12 percent between 2008-09 and 2009-10, reaching a record high
(Youthpolicy.org, 2013). These statistics show that youth crime is increasing and need to be
controlled by framing proper rule. Investing funds on building youth detention centre can be
considered as a positive outcome of this problem. Socio-cultural factors like interaction with
family is a major factor that is impacting on youth crime. Peer influences impacts on
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behaviour of child and gives rise to antisocial behaviour (Vita, 2015). Political ecology
theory can be related to this problem as it evaluates human organization and social forms.
This theory states that unequal distribution of costs and benefits can reinforce pre-existing
inequalities in society.
Welfarism can be identified as rationality of youth governance. Welfarism states that actions
taken by a government or policies set must be done on the basis of consequences (Vita,
2015). These morally significant consequences need to achieve human welfare. Welfarism is
associated with economic welfare. Hence, the government needs to allocate this fund to
develop youth detention centre after evaluating its consequences to human welfare. This can
be related to a corresponding strategy of remoralization. Governing young people can help to
reinstate moral feelings in youths. Remoralization helps to solve a problem by strengthening
and deepening a welfare program. Government can reduce youth crime by adopting this
strategy along with developing youth detention centre. As opined by Kippin (2018),
remoralization is a strategy of governing, which can include whole community and families.
Different aspects of this remoralization strategy are associated with the proposed change.
This includes proper monitoring of the detained youths and engaging their families in the
program. This can help to improve the quality of environment upon which the child will grow
up in future. Different factors like parental control, rearing practice of a child can be included
in this strategy. Other aspects of this strategy include training regarding provision of respect
to others and gaining education can be associated with this proposed change.
Media plays an essential role in highlighting different problems among juveniles like drug
abuse, increase in crime. This proposed change can help to reduce these problems in society
and increase morality of children. Media channels have also highlighted the relationship
between lack of proper care and education and growth of crime. Media also plays a huge role
in creating moral panics and fear of crime. However, media lacks attention in formation of a
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proper effective youth criminal justice policy. Youth detention centre provides education and
training that helps to increase personal skills of a child. Hence, this proposed change is
appropriate that can help to reduce youth crime rate and increase morality in them.
Research and analysis of the proposal
The proposal off allocating $25 million to state fund to develop a detention center for young
is being supported as government of Australia is trying to implicate positive change in
Juvenile criminals. As stated by Shepherd et al. (2016), offenders of 10-17 years old are put
in the juvenile detention centres for their correction. The number of Juvenile offenders is
increasing day by day in Australia and the government of this country is liable to build more
Youth detention centres for detainees. More than 54064 youth offenders have been arrested
by police in the years 2016 and 2017. The statistic is showing that near about 13% of the total
offenders in Australia are youth (Abs.gov.au, 2019). Government needs to provide
opportunity to them to rectify their mistakes. For this reason, building of youth detention
center is important. Allocating funds to this kind of project can be considered as good
approach of government.
Building youth detention centre will affect various groups of young people. For example,
ethnic minority juveniles and indigenous juvenile offenders can have training and education
from youth detention centres that may change the way they look at the world. As mentioned
by Lynch (2017), this group does not get enough social support and lack of literacy among
this community leads to many criminal offenses by juveniles. Building youth detention centre
may impact on the mind of these groups of offenders and this aspect may help them to
become a better person in future. As mentioned by Naylor (2016), "People held in places of
detention are always at risk of abusive treatment, whether they are in prisons, juvenile
detention, psychiatric facilities, or immigration detention". However, government must
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monitor facilities provided by detention centres on a regular basis to ensure its impact on
ethnic and indigenous group. No torture must be there in the detention centres and it must be
monitored by government.
Northern Territory has taken certain decisions for protecting the rights of juvenile criminals.
For example, NT have planned to pass a youth justice law to mention areas and processes that
can be considered by guards for using isolation, force, and restraint to juveniles. This law
may be applied to two youth detention centre such as Alice Spring and Don Dale
(Theguardian.com, 2019). This kind of changes in legal system impacts on justice system for
juveniles in this region of Australia. This initiative is not only effective for a particular group
of young people but also it may contribute to health and wellbeing of youth offenders from
all groups. As stated by Grant et al. (2017), government makes this kind of laws to protect
abuse to juvenile criminals as they think that correction is possible and juvenile offenders
must get a chance to become a good person.
Countries other than Australia are taking this matter seriously and governments are trying to
protect juvenile offenders from spending their time behind bars. The amount of time of
administering caution to youth offenders has been limited by the Crime and Disorder Act
1998, in the United Kingdom (Justice.org.uk, 2019). In addition, the UK government has
passed the detention and trading order for widening the circumstances under which young
people are sent to detention centres. Blackley and Bartels (2018), have mentioned that this
kind of proposal must be proposed by government to provide opportunity of juvenile
offenders to rectify themselves. Aim of the present proposal is similar by nature and it is
important to allocate funds for developing youth detention centre as the number of juvenile
offenders is increasing.
Recommendation and conclusion
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It can be concluded that the proposed change of allocating $25 million of funds for
developing a new youth detention center is a good change. This can help the government of
this country to control and the rate of juvenile crimes. In addition, they can be provided with
proper education and their families can also be engaged in this program. Strategy of
remoralization is related to this approach that can help to engage communities and families of
these young children. Hence, environment of these children can be improved in future. On
the other hand, this change can create training and education opportunities for these children
that can help them to achieve success in future. They can learn various personal and
professional skills, which can help them to gain motivation in future. Therefore, this change
of building detention center can help to reduce crime rates and impacts of malpractices like
drug can be reduced.
Moreover, it can be recommended that in this new detention center the government project of
respect can be implemented. Main aim of this project is to create positive experiences for
children and helps them to build healthy relationships. They can help center management in
providing education and moral training to the juveniles. This project can already be
implemented among indigenous communities of Australia. In addition, AIHW can be
associated with this proposed change. This institute provides aids to backward communities
and frame strategies to reduce violence. This includes family, domestic and sexual violence
that also impacts in building aggressive behavior among children, which can help to grow
criminal mentality in them. They can provide additional funds and help the government to
frame policies for training and educating detained individuals. Moreover, they can also help
to monitor health and nutrition of the juveniles. These recommendations can be improved by
government to gain success in the proposed change.
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References
Abs.gov.au. (2019). YOUTH OFFENDERS. Available at:
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4519.0~2016-17~Main
%20Features~Youth%20Offenders~4 [Accessed on 5th June 2019]
Blackley, R. and Bartels, L., 2018. Sentencing and treatment of juvenile sex offenders in
Australia. Trends & Issues in Crime & Criminal Justice, (555).
Fitz-Gibbon, K., 2018. The Treatment of Australian Children in Detention: A Human Rights
Law Analysis of Media Coverage in the Wake of Abuse at the Don Dale Detention Centre.
UNSWLJ, 41, p.100.
Grant, E., Lulham, R. and Naylor, B., 2017. The use of segregation for children in Australian
youth detention systems: An argument for prohibition.
Justice.org.uk. (2019). Youth justice. Available at: https://justice.org.uk/youth-justice/
[Accessed on 5th June 2019]
Kippin, N.R., Leitão, S., Watkins, R., Finlay-Jones, A., Condon, C., Marriott, R., Mutch,
R.C. and Bower, C., 2018. Language diversity, language disorder, and fetal alcohol spectrum
disorder among youth sentenced to detention in Western Australia. International journal of
law and psychiatry, 61, pp.40-49.
Lynch, M., 2017. Understanding youth crime: An Australian study. Abingdon: Routledge.
Naylor, B., 2016. Protecting human rights in detention: Rights, monitoring and OPCAT.
Alternative Law Journal, 41(3), pp.151-154.
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Shepherd, S.M., Luebbers, S. and Ogloff, J.R., 2016. The role of protective factors and the
relationship with recidivism for high-risk young people in detention. Criminal Justice and
Behavior, 43(7), pp.863-878.
Theguardian.com. (2019). NT to pass new youth justice laws that contradict Don Dale
findings. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/21/nt-to-pass-
new-youth-justice-laws-that-contradict-don-dale-findings [Accessed on 5th June 2019]
Vita, M., 2015. Review of the Northern Territory youth detention system report. Northern
Territory Government.
Youthpolicy.org (2013), Youth crime, available at http://www.youthpolicy.org/blog/youth-
work-community-work/the-rise-and-rise-of-child-crime/ [Accessed on 5th June 2019]
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