Youth Crime Crackdown in Qld Leaves Staff Unconvinced
Key government staff and oversight groups most involved in Queensland’s controversial youth crime crackdown have little confidence in its success, a long-awaited interim review shows. One advocacy group has since labelled the focus on locking up more young people contradictory, while another rejected assertions that some restraint methods were no longer used in detention centres. Former police commissioner Bob Atkinson’s review of 2021 youth justice changes , sparked by high-profile tragedies involving young offenders and stolen cars, was belatedly released by the government on Tuesday. The review focused only on the rollout of the measures – aimed at the largely Indigenous cohort of about 400 serious repeat offenders responsible for roughly half the state’s youth crime – in the first six months. Handed to the government in March, it found more young people had been refused bail or were held in custody since the changes, which were “worthwhile and ...