Eddie Russell
Melton council is seeking new measures be put in place to both monitor and rehabilitate youth offenders in the municipality.
At the June 24 council meeting, councillor Julie Shannon asked council write to both state government ministers and opposition ministers to advocate for both increased funding of prevention and diversionary programs and adopting of new monitoring and rehabilitation programs.
Cr Shannon said the methods currently in place were not doing enough.
“It’s obvious that the current legal system is not helping our community and youth offenders to be rehabilitated effectively,” she said.
With the motion, council hopes to address youth involvement in crime and enhance community safety.
Cr Shannon said there were many ways monitoring could be achieved, including through the use of ankle bracelets.
“A lot of young offenders are being put out into the community and they’re being let out on bail and I think that is not always working,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s helping them either if they get put straight into jail. That’s not always a solution either.
“There’s different ways they can be monitored so that they can be in the community but also keeping themselves and the community safe.”
Councillor Sophie Ramsey said she eagerly awaited the outcome of the motion and that improving the current system was welcomed.
“Increased funding and support is always going to be a positive first step to making some critical changes,” she said.
Councillor Steve Abboushi cited his previous experience with the issue and said that necessary changes needed to be made to existing programs.
“I have some experience working with… young offenders… and I think this is fantastic because it focuses on diversionary programs for preventing young people offending… as opposed to hard line sanctions,” he said.
“There are lots of other things that we can do to divert the anti-social behaviour and make young people more productive in our community.”
