Momento 1: Indagación con los estudiantes del grado tercero acerca

This section sets out the rationale for establishing the Youth, Community and Law Program (YCLP), provides a context for its operations and discusses its alignment with justice policies in Victoria. The design and development of the YCLP stemmed from my current role as General Manager employed by TYJinc. to manage the Visy Cares Hub and my association with the YCLP, in terms of its ongoing program delivery, raised a number of ethical dilemmas, which are discussed later and fully in Chapter Four.

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Having witnessed an increase in 2008 in the number of young adults aged between 18 and 25 years being referred in an ad hoc way by the Magistrates’ Court to access services at the Visy Cares Hub, the opportunity presented itself to formalise the referral process and to encourage the courts to maximise the use of the centre for young people most in need. An initial meeting with the Regional Coordinating Magistrate from the Sunshine Magistrates’ Court highlighted the potential for the YCLP to offer a structured program for young adults that would give them direct access to a range of essential and timely services that had previously been difficult to access. Presentations were made to potential stakeholders, including Victoria Police informants, police prosecution, magistrates, defence lawyers and not-for-profit (NFP) and government service providers, to determine the level of interest and support for the program concept. The YCLP was constructed as a result of these background discussions, and a successful funding application to the Legal Services Board (LSB) Grants Program of Victoria enabled a pilot program to be delivered for three years. The magistrates agreed that they would begin making referrals to the YCLP in late 2009 and, having secured their full support, the Youth, Community and Law Program was launched: “... to offer the Sunshine and Werribee Magistrates Courts a clear and straightforward gateway to the range of specialist and universal youth services, where young adults could be referred to receive targeted interventions” (Hart, 2008).

A similar community justice provision, the Red Hook Community Justice Center in New York, worked with adult offenders with the aim being to “... drive home notions of individual responsibility” through the uptake of a range of practical and appropriate interventions. One local resident stated that to halt the “... revolving-door cycle of incarceration and recidivism”:

You can’t divide a person up. You have to treat the whole person. You have to have a comprehensive look at the whole person. The justice center could do that. The community court can look at social issues. It has great potential for eliminating social problems (Lee et al., 2013:28).

Instead of a piecemeal approach, the YCLP offered a similarly coordinated approach to young adults’ problems to help steer them away from further involvement in the criminal justice system and ultimately prison. When the program was launched, this resource and response were lacking in Melbourne’s Western Metropolitan Region. Traditionally, the Magistrates’ Courts were more likely to deal with problems faced by young adults without reference to issues such as how to reduce the likelihood of reoffending or what structures and supports could be used to enhance the potential for a young adult’s rehabilitation. The YCLP took a holistic approach to addressing the needs of young adults and aimed, through tackling the underlying causes of offending behaviour, to ultimately reduce rates of

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reoffending. As a result, the YCLP was consistent with the well-developed philosophy of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) which places more emphasis on the effect that courts and the legal system have on the emotions, mental health and behaviours of individuals. Therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) approaches often see courts in the role of ‘problem solvers’, rather than in their more traditional role in the justice system, with the aim of addressing or solving the ‘problems’ that led to the offending. It was from this philosophical position that the Sunshine and Werribee magistrates embraced the notion of how the YCLP could complement their work, by providing the court with a single, straightforward point of referral for young adults to participate in a range of services aimed at addressing the causes of their offending behaviour, prior to them being sentenced.

The holistic and strengths-based approach used by the YCLP was built on well-established academic literature and evidence from similar programs which also placed a strong emphasis on diversion and addressing the underlying causes of offending. In Victoria, the closest comparison to the YCLP was the Court Integrated Services Program (CISP), operated by the Victorian Department of Justice and Regulation (DoJR) out of the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria. Similar to the YCLP, CISP worked with defendants on bail status, prior to their sentencing for matters in the Magistrates’ Court. It also took a multidisciplinary approach to addressing the individual needs of its clients. However, the YCLP had several unique features by which it differentiated from CISP and from other programs with similar therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) objectives, such as:

Co-location with other youth service providers: as stated previously, the YCLP operates from the Visy Cares Hub in Sunshine which is a co-located youth services centre housing 20 other service providers. Stakeholders and research suggest that co-location is important in driving young people’s engagement with services, as young people are less likely to attend appointments with multiple service providers if they have to travel extensively and frequently. Co-location has also facilitated strong working relationships between the YCLP staff and staff at other youth services agencies. By contrast, the CISP program operates out of the Magistrates’ Court at Sunshine which is considered a more coercive and less objective environment.

Central location within the community: the Visy Cares Hub is prominent within the community of Sunshine and also includes a youth-specific drop-in centre which offers a discreet intake and referral process unconnected to the potential stigma of a court setting. The Visy Cares Hub is easily accessible and well established and is nestled between two

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main shopping centres. It is also located 500 metres from the ‘government precinct’ comprising the regional Magistrates’ Court, Centrelink, VicRoads and the police station.

Young adult-specific: the YCLP is specifically targeted at persons aged 18–25 years.

These young adults often fall between the gaps in service delivery as, unlike many social services, the justice system generally treats persons aged 18 years and over as adults. Therefore, although these young adults are no longer eligible to participate in mainstream Youth Justice programs, they often lack the capacity to interact with adult services. Unlike CISP, which is open to all ages, the YCLP is targeted at engaging specifically with young adults and attempts to accommodate their specific needs.

Flexibility in relation to status: the YCLP does not work solely with young adults on bail status, with this representing only around a quarter (24%) of the referrals to the program. The remaining 76% of young adults are on a deferral of sentence or an adjourned undertaking and, without the YCLP, would have missed out on the opportunity for interventions as they would not have met the CISP criteria. In this respect, the YCLP was evidenced as an inclusive, flexible and young adult-specific referral point for the Magistrates’ Courts.

In terms of policy alignment,it costs the Victorian Government almost $1 billion annually to operate Victoria’s prisons. This is equivalent to $328 per prisoner per day, $120,000 per year or $360,000 for the average sentence of nearly three years. From 2012–2014, the prison population in Victoria increased by 25%, driving prison costs higher and putting pressure on the capacity of Victoria’s prisons. During the last two years, the number of young people in Victoria’s prisons has increased by 16% to more than 750, costing the government an estimated $91 million per annum. Recidivism rates are highest amongst young people, with over half likely to return to prison within two years of release. As noted above, the primary purpose of the YCLP is to prevent further offending by young adults in the criminal justice system. This purpose is closely aligned with the Victorian Government’s statements on youth justice, in particular the emphasis placed by the government on diversion and early intervention. The YCLP’s approach which aims to help its clients to achieve improved outcomes across a wide range of areas, including education, employment, general health, mental health, drug and alcohol misuse, housing and access to income support, is consistent with statements made by the government on the complex factors that lead to offending. The YCLP’s focus on addressing the underlying causes of offending for young people is also consistent with a number of messages delivered by the Victorian Ombudsman

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in her report to the Victorian Government in September 2015.16 _{This report highlighted the} cost of the prison system to the Victorian Government, which will exceed $1 billion in 2014– 15, and that prison is the most expensive response that we have to criminal behaviour. In addition, the Ombudsman’s report noted the need to address the broad range of offenders’ needs and that a strong focus on prevention was required:

It is patently clear that long-term solutions do not lie within the walls of our prisons or with a single government department. The successful innovations elsewhere have come as a result of a concerted whole-of-government response. The state needs a comprehensive approach – across the justice system, education, health and housing – to focus on the causes of crime rather than its consequences. Offenders need to be dealt with in ways that make it less likely they will reoffend (Glass, 2014:23).

Furthermore, the Ombudsman’s report noted the link between the cost of the prison system and the recidivism rates for young people aged 18–24, over half of whom currently return to prison within two years of release, contributing to a cycle of offending that may well remain unbroken through their lifetime.