‘The Door Creaked Shut’

Abstract

In 2014 Queensland's conservative Liberal National Party government made a number of amendments to the Youth Justice Act 1992 (Qld) ('YJA'). Of critical importance is the new breach of bail offence (s 59A) and the reverse onus provision (s 59B). The effect of these changes was compounded by the removal of the sentencing principle of 'detention as a last resort' (s 150(5)). Cumulatively, these three amendments increase the likelihood of entrenching young people within the criminal justice system. Previously, where a young person committed an offence while on bail, it had been treated 'as an aggravating circumstance on the sentence for that offence'. Under the amendments, a child who is found guilty of a 'subsequent offence' (defined in s 59AA) committed while on bail, now faces two additional penalties, those being the sentence for the new or 'subsequent offence' and in addition a separate charge (and sentence) for breaching bail (s 59(2)). According to the section, the maximum penalty for the breach of bail offence is stated to be 20 penalty units or imprisonment for one year.