Stop Western Australia's mandatory sentencing for kids

Western Australia (WA) locks up Indigenous young people at the highest rate in Australia.

Despite this, the WA Government hopes to pass a 'Home Burglary Bill' which, if successful, will send more young people between the ages of 16 and 17 to prison, and won't reduce burglaries.

The Bill has now passed parliament's lower-house -- we need to urgently step up the pressure to stop it entering into force.

WA is gutting our young peoples' futures. Tell them to scrap the Home Burglary Bill now.

Indigenous young people in WA are already 52 times more likely to be in detention than other young people and if the Bill passes, judges will have no choice but to lock up even more of them.

This Bill would not only contravene the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it would label young people as criminals incapable of reform and would leave them no pathways – except towards a prison cell.
I am deeply concerned about aspects of the Criminal Law Amendment (Home Burglary and Other Offences) Bill 2014 (WA) that apply to young people.

The tightening of three strikes mandatory sentencing laws for 16- and 17- year-olds will adversely affect Aboriginal young people who are already massively over-represented in our prisons. It will also be socially and economically costly and put taxpayer funds into expanding detention rather than prevention and diversion programs that are much more likely to make the community safer.

Mandatory sentencing of young people also contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child which requires that detention be a measure of last resort, and must be removed. If the Bill is not withdrawn or amended, I ask you to amend the Bill to reduce the review period to 12 months and ensure more rapid assessments of unjust outcomes.
I also ask you to recommend that the Bill be referred to the Public Administration Committee for review.
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