1. It’s not a solution. 30% of adult prisoners were juvenile prisoners.
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
In NSW, the average yearly cost of supervising and caring for juvenile offenders last year was $237,980 a person.
“A quarter of a million dollars a year for each young person locked up, and what do we get in return?”
It’s not a solution. 30% of adult prisoners were juvenile prisoners.
Our system is not working.
Prevention the only hope for young offenders, because cure is failing
(SMH 2012)

2. 3 main ways of diverting young people away from court:
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
The longer you can keep a young person from having contact with the criminal justice system, the less chance they have of becoming a “career” criminal later in life. You don’t really want a kid that made a dumb decision one day to be stuck in a Juvenile Justice Centre with much more hardened repeat offenders.
Plus, you don’t want a young person to be labeled (by others, or themselves) as a criminal at such a young age (which they might be if they go to court, even if it’s just the Children’s Court).
So, the NSW government actually passed a GOOD law in 1997 called the Young Offenders Act 1997, which allows POLICE to ‘divert’ (avoid; move away) young people from having to go to court at all.
Warnings
Cautions
Youth Justice Conferences
3 main ways of diverting young people away from court:

3. Police decide to take action Youth Justice Conference
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
Court
Warning
Youth Justice Conference
Control Order (detention)
Caution
Community Service
Good Behaviour Bond
Probation
On-the-spot fine
Fine

4. Police decide to take action Youth Justice Conference
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
About 50% of Young Offenders get diverted from formal prosecution (court)
Australian Institute of Criminology, Juveniles‟ contact with the criminal justice system in Australia, 2009
Warning
Youth Justice Conference
Caution
On-the-spot fine

5. Police decide to take action
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
Issued by police
For minor offences (no violence)
No admission of guilt is needed
Police record name, date, place
No penalty or criminal record
Can be used later (“You’ve already received a warning…”), but young people can be warned more than once
Warning

6. Police decide to take action
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
For more serious (but obviously not very serious) offences
The young person must admit guilt and say yes (consent) to getting the Caution
Still issued by police
Still no criminal record
Still gets recorded
No more than three Cautions
Young person can be made to write an apology, but no fines or anything else
Caution

7. Police decide to take action Youth Justice Conference
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
Young person accepts responsibility for the offence
More about rehabilitation and ‘restorative justice’ rather than simply punishing the young offender
Youth Justice Conference
It finishes with an ‘outcome plan’, which the offender has to agree to. This might include paying back the
Allows the victim to say how they’ve been affected by the crime
victim (e.g. working for them), apologising, going to counselling, etc. If the offender doesn’t follow the outcome plan, the young person can end up facing court instead.

8. Police decide to take action Youth Justice Conference
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
40%
Court
Youth Justice Conference
60%
What’s the point in having a diversionary program if you are referred to it by a court – the point is to avoid the court completely!
Noetic Review (2010)

9. Police decide to take action Youth Justice Conference
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Police decide to take action
40%
Youth Justice Conference
It’s also CHEAPER and FASTER
to do it through the police.
Mediation Cheaper than Court for Juveniles
(The Australian 2012)

10. Youth Justice Conference
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
Youth Justice Conference 5%
of all Youth Offenders
Noetic Review (2010)

11. An alternative to REGULAR court…
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT
An alternative to REGULAR court…
The Youth Drug and Alcohol Court:
Sent young offenders to counselling and rehabilitation programs instead of jail.
The NSW government decided to shut it down in 2012 because it was “too expensive”.
Anger as NSW axes youth drug court (ABC, 2012)

12. The ‘Youth on Track’ program
Recent Trial of a NEW ALTERNATIVE:
The ‘Youth on Track’ program
Police and (later) schools will be able to refer young people who they believe are at risk of committing crimes to "literacy, substance abuse and mental illness services".
See kids - don't commit crimes or they'll make you read.
Seriously, though, this is a much better idea, especially the mental health services. Jail is where we keep a lot of our mentally ill people. If they were ill in any other part of their body, we'd keep them in hospital. Remember - this is ONLY A TRIAL in, of course, BLACKTOWN!!!! (and Kempsey and Newcastle).
Getting Youth Back on Track
(ABC News 2013)
ALTERNATIVES TO COURT

13. Questions
Question 1: Why must the criminal justice system seek to utilise alternatives to court for young offenders? There are multiple reasons. Provide evidence. (Articles, etc.) Question 2: What does the Young Offenders Act 1997 do in NSW? Is it effective or not? Give reasons for your assessment. Question 3: In % of juveniles have been diverted from court. (see slide 4) What is the number now? Is there an improvement? Question 4: Before we turn to the alternatives to court, examine how the court has treated the sentencing of young offenders. Do this by examining both cases on page 114 of the textbook and state what the court's stance is on juvenile sentencing. Question 5: Briefly state what a caution and a warning is. (See slide 6) Question 6: What is a youth justice conference and what does it aim to do? (see slide 7) Question 7: How are these two articles in opposition to one another with regards to Youth Justice Conferencing: Also compare that with this line from page 116 of the textbook: "Prior police cautions and prior conferences were more likely among those who received a conference or who were referred to court. Thirty-nine per cent of those who attended a conference had had one or two previous cautions. Nearly 15% had had three or more previous cautions." Question 8: After answering the above question and reading through slide 11 and 12, do you think that measures that have been taken to give juveniles alternatives to court have been effective? Why/ why not?