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Open letter calls for government to keep children out of prison
A collective group comprising of legal representatives, a law society and human rights organisations has penned an open letter calling on the ACT government to raise the age of criminal responsibility in the territory from 10 to 14 years.
Naomi Neilson
The open letter, coordinated by Aboriginal-led justice organisation Change the Record, has been sent to ministers calling for the minimum age of criminality to be raised from age 10 to 14, minimising the number of children stuck behind bars across the country.
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The Law Society of ACT is a signatory of the letter, demanding that it is “unacceptable” to put children in prison: “Australia should be ashamed of the number of children held in prisons around the country, and especially of the extraordinary over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in detention.”
In a statement, the Law Society applauded the recent reductions in the rate of children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent in detention but said there is still much to be done. As it currently stands, Aboriginal children are imprisoned at eight times the rate of non-Indigenous children, leading to extensive negative social ramifications.
“We strongly support raising the age of minimum criminal responsibility from 10 years old to 14 years old, and we are urging the ACT government to take urgent action locally to introduce legislative change to this effect,” the ACT Law Society said.
The matter has been put on the agenda of the Council of Attorney-General’s meeting at the end of July, but the Law Society said the territory has been a leader on several social issues before and should be taking the lead on this now.
“We don’t have to wait for the other states and territories to do the right thing. The ACT government could take action now, raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, and keep our children out of prison,” the ACT Law Society said.
