MEDIA RELEASE DEATHS IN CUSTODY WATCH COMMITTEE WA) Inc.
207 Beaufort St Perth Western Australia 6000 PO Box 8196 Perth WA 6849 Tel: 61(0)8 9227-5751 Mobile: 041993-0375 Fax: 61(0)8 9227-5593 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.deathsincustody.com/ Systemic Racism: WA Mandatory Sentencing Laws "The Western Australian Government's Review of Mandatory Sentencing Laws demonstrates there is systemic racism toward Aboriginal Youth in the Criminal Justice System in this State." said Kath Mallott, Executive Officer of the Deaths In Custody Watch Committee. "The Criminal Justice System in WA fails Aboriginal children from a very early age, by its failure to divert Aboriginal children from the court system when offending first starts. I am talking about the failure of the Juvenile Justice Teams, the only diversionary program for juveniles in this State." "These teams divert 87.5% of non-Aboriginal youth from the Courts but only 15% of Aboriginal children. The failure to divert Aboriginal children has not been addressed by the Dept of Justice since the inception of their so- called Diversionary Program some years ago." "The failure to divert the majority of the Aboriginal children from the courts at an early stage results in them racking up more offences and then being targetted as repeat offenders and finally hit with Mandatory Sentencing." "The Juvenile Justice Teams were originally established as a response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and were supposed to specifically address the need to divert Aboriginal children from the Court system. They have failed miserably to do this and we now see the consequence of that failure in that 81% of those sentenced under WA Mandatory Sentencing laws are Aboriginal juveniles." "At the same time successive governments in this State have failed to address the underlying causes and social issues relating to Aboriginal juvenile offending. Many of these children come from a background of extreme hardship, and are more likely to homeless, and to have witnessed extreme trauma." "Locking them up is not the answer." --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/ until 11 March, 2001 and Recoznettwo is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznettwo%40green.net.au/ from that date. This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
