Free Killing Time by Andrew Fraser Page A

parole officer advised that, while he supported my application, his superiors opposed it. No reason given – just opposed. Fortunately the police could see the value of this contribution and supported my application, which has since been granted after an eighteen-month delay. No thanks to the Office of Corrections!
    Back in the Children’s Court, kids very quickly wake up to the fact that you can go back to court again and again until you are blue in the face and you will at worst receive a slap over the wrist from some caring and sharing magistrate. Only in the most extreme cases will a juvenile offender be sent to what is oxymoronically referred to as a Youth Training Centre. At YTC the youth is supposed to be taught appropriate skills to cope in society, without reoffending, after release. How is it, then, that the majority of the young blokes I have seen over the years, both in and out of the nick, who have had stints at these so called YTCs are illiterate? Once again there is no explanation. Society ought be outraged. By the way, it is a human rights violation not to offer education in a place of detention.
    We live in a society and are required to live by its rules, irrespective of our age. If we don’t abide by society’s rules, we should be sanctioned, and sanctioned in a manner that makes us think twice about reoffending. The present regime in the Children’s Court is such that kids don’t get that message. I’ve appeared for kids who have stabbed people at parties and they receive a good behaviour bond. These kids should be subject to stringent sanctions that see them properly supervised and educated . They should be required to do something of benefit for the community by putting something back into that community. Good behaviour bonds must be changed to mean more than just that. Otherwise, it’s as the criminals say – “sign the sorry book” and head off into the sunset with the overwhelming feeling that you have committed an offence with impunity and can do so again. The Children’s Court is a paper tiger.
    The natural extension of this regime is that a child offender who continues to offend until they reach adult court age will eventually front court and be somewhat stunned to find out that the presiding judge or magistrate takes a very dim view of their very lengthy history of anti-social behaviour and they finally end up in jail. Of course, jail is merely an advanced college of criminal education, in the practical sense, and you come out worse than when you went in.
    I have made this complaint before and I will continue to make it until somebody takes notice and puts an end to this idiocy.
    If, as an ordinary member of the public, you sat in the Children’s Court for a day and saw the categories of offences that are committed – particularly car theft and offences of a similar nature, such as burglary, where your home has been invaded and your valuables are stolen – and saw the manner in which the children are “reprimanded”, you would be horrified.
    No doubt the signal, this disposition, sent to the fifteen-year-old Peter Dupas was similar. He could reoffend with impunity, and did so time and again over many years until he finally brought himself undone. What would have been the case if Peter junior had been jumped on from a great height when a pattern first emerged in his offending.
    I remember talking to a senior police officer one day at the Children’s Court. He was there because there had been a very serious assault and I was appearing for the accused, but there had also been a complaint made by that kid and his parents about police treatment. During the conversation I asked him why there were so many kids being charged and processed by the Children’s Court these days. I found his answer very interesting.
    Once upon a time, in the good old days, if young Johnny was caught breaking windows or playing up in the street and