❓ A WA parliamentary question highlights the cost of transporting juvenile offenders from regional areas to Perth remand centres, questioning the need for a regional remand facility and advocating for early intervention programs.
AnsweredQoN 80Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
JUVENILE REMAND CENTRE — GREAT SOUTHERN
I refer to an incident concerning a juvenile recently arrested in Albany at night for breaking a curfew. (1) Is the minister aware that if a juvenile is arrested after 8.00 pm in Albany, the minister’s department will charter a flight to and from Albany to have that juvenile remanded to a Perth facility? (2) Does the minister endorse wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money sending juveniles in trouble with the law hundreds of kilometres away from their families and support networks to large metropolitan remand centres? (3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN
I refer to an incident concerning a juvenile recently arrested in Albany at night for breaking a curfew. (1) Is the minister aware that if a juvenile is arrested after 8.00 pm in Albany, the minister’s department will charter a flight to and from Albany to have that juvenile remanded to a Perth facility? (2) Does the minister endorse wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money sending juveniles in trouble with the law hundreds of kilometres away from their families and support networks to large metropolitan remand centres? (3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(1) Is the minister aware that if a juvenile is arrested after 8.00 pm in Albany, the minister’s department will charter a flight to and from Albany to have that juvenile remanded to a Perth facility? (2) Does the minister endorse wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money sending juveniles in trouble with the law hundreds of kilometres away from their families and support networks to large metropolitan remand centres? (3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(2) Does the minister endorse wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money sending juveniles in trouble with the law hundreds of kilometres away from their families and support networks to large metropolitan remand centres? (3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(1) Is the minister aware that if a juvenile is arrested after 8.00 pm in Albany, the minister’s department will charter a flight to and from Albany to have that juvenile remanded to a Perth facility? (2) Does the minister endorse wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money sending juveniles in trouble with the law hundreds of kilometres away from their families and support networks to large metropolitan remand centres? (3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(2) Does the minister endorse wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money sending juveniles in trouble with the law hundreds of kilometres away from their families and support networks to large metropolitan remand centres? (3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(3) Are practices similar to that experienced by this Albany juvenile occurring across the state, at a huge cost to the taxpayer? (4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(4) When will the minister build a regional remand centre in the Great Southern in an effort to reduce costs associated with transporting juvenile prisoners? Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
Mr D.T. REDMAN replied: I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
I thank the member for Albany for the question. (1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
(1)–(4) I think the question is particularly good because it relates to young people in our community. From time to time, young people get themselves in trouble, and as a product of that and the services that the government provides, decisions have to be made. One of the first things that I think any good government—I think it is the same sort of principle that the Labor Party had when it was in government—does is determine that it does not want to have juveniles going into prison or into detention, if it can possibly be avoided. Therefore, I think that early intervention and those practices that we can put in place to actually divert those young people from detention is the first and foremost strategy. For that reason, we have put in place and supported the regional youth justice services in the Mid West and Kalgoorlie. We recently announced in the West Kimberley some $43 million of royalties for regions funds to roll out in the West Kimberley and the East Kimberley, and to come in to the Pilbara later this year. The member has certainly highlighted a key issue: when a young offender gets into a situation in which he is charged with something and has to go into remand and there are no localised remand facilities, resources have to be deployed to get that offender into a remand centre; and, of course, the closest centre is Perth. That is a very, very serious issue. In our intervention at this point we are addressing that issue by trying to take away the notion of having to put them into that remand position by putting strategies in place for early intervention. However, there are some cases in which, although it is unfortunate, there has to be a referral to those remand centres. Therefore, the member is quite right to ask whether I support the resources that go into doing that. I certainly prefer not to put those resources into it. In a lot of cases it is actually police resources that are being drawn away from their front-line services to facilitate that. It is certainly not a situation that anyone wants to be in. But I think investment in those sorts of redirection and early intervention programs is appropriate. There may well be a case to look at some regional detention centres, but I think the early intervention investment is most appropriate, which is what we are doing as a government. However, I highlight—I think the member agrees with this—that we need to take every possible alternative before we choose to put a young person—a juvenile—into detention.
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