The $18.9 million juvenile justice reform strategy involves a range of leading-edge reforms targeted at serious and repeat juvenile offenders, as well as juvenile offenders in remote and regional areas. These reforms have been complemented by legislative reform, which was proclaimed by Parliament on 1 January 2005.
Four key initiatives have been implemented as part of the reforms. Three relate to changes to the Young Offenders Amendment Act 2004, including:
- introducing curfews, with the option of electronic monitoring, for young offenders;
- extending community supervision agreements currently in place for adult offenders in remote WA to provide a number of services to young offenders in their own communities; and
- introducing juvenile conferencing in remote communities for minor juvenile offenders, based on the successful juvenile justice teams approach.
The fourth initiative, the Intensive Supervision Program for serious repeat juvenile offenders, began operating in Midland in November 2004 and expanded to Mirrabooka and Cannington in February 2005.These important reforms deliver juvenile justice strategies directly to offenders by tackling the problem in their neighbourhood, with their family and in their home, as well as those in communities in remote regions.They target specific groups of offenders who have been difficult to manage:
- Serious, repeat offenders - a small group of around 200 juveniles who are responsible for the most serious repeat offending and a large proportion of juvenile crime in WA; and
- Regional young offenders.
