Regional youth crime has been in the news again recently with several politicians not happy with the NSW Premier’s new initiatives around the problem.
The Minns government introduced legislation to NSW parliament last week to toughen bail laws, along with a $26.2m package of initiatives it said would address youth offending, but Barwon MP, Roy Butler, said it was wrong to assume that young offenders would always view extended sentences as a punishment and a deterrent to antisocial behaviour.
“Some young offenders see incarceration as a rite of passage, an elevation in status among their peers,” he said. “For others, it’s an environment where they have three meals a day and a routine, something their life in the community may have lacked,” Mr Butler said…