'Insanity': Premier ignores concerns about tougher bail laws

Tatum Moore, CEO of the Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council, called the new laws which could see more young people locked up for longer a "betrayal" and warned it would make communities more dangerous.

"Disappointingly our premier has ignored more than 3000 signatures which pleaded for him to not betray Closing the Gap by introducing harmful new laws that will lock up more children," she told the Daily Liberal.

"Locking children up in prisons thinking it's going to make communities safer is insanity.

"It will compound the trauma vulnerable children have already been through, creating more crime, division within communities and making communities more unsafe."

In response to a wave of youth crime sweeping regional NSW, in the early hours of March 22, the NSW government passed a suite of changes including additional bail tests for young people.

The changes will make it harder for people aged 14 to 18 to get bail when charged with break and enter or motor vehicle theft while on bail for similar offences.

The government also brought in a new "performance crime" offence which would add an additional two years' imprisonment for people who commit motor vehicle theft or break and enter offences and post about it on social media.

"The new 'post and boast' offence targets performance crime - where offenders post footage of their law-breaking online - in connection with car crime and break and enter offences," NSW Attorney General Michael Daley said.

"This behaviour is unacceptable and has to stop.

"People have a right to sleep safe in their beds in the sanctity of their home and should not have to face being retraumatised, ridiculed and shamed with images of the crime being made into a warped kind of 'entertainment'."

While the new laws have been welcomed by some, others, including Aboriginal Legal Service CEO Karly Warner, are calling for them to be scrapped.

"We are drawing a line in the sand. We cannot accept an Australia that puts children in jail instead of evidence-based policy that actually makes communities safer," she said.

"Time will show that these laws will increase crime and make communities more dangerous.

"We won't stop until this betrayal of vulnerable children and of Closing the Gap is overturned and replaced with the solutions that actually make a difference."

An open letter to the government expressing concern about the changes before they were brought in was signed by 60 organisations and over 500 experts, including a number from Dubbo, Walgett and Bourke.

They say the laws will disproportionately impact Indigenous young people.

"I think about the detrimental ramifications in the future, which we are already seeing the evidence of putting children in prisons," Ms Moore, who was among those who signed the petition, said.

"They have been locking up children since colonisation and we know punitive measures don't work.

"Not only will there be an even higher increase of First Nations children in jails, there will be an increase of deaths in custody."

In June 2023, 63 per cent young people aged 10 to 17 in detention were First Nations, while First Nations people in this age group make up 5.7 per cent of the general population.

Not-for-profits working with youth in regional NSW have also called on the government to rethink the amendments.

"When children are incarcerated, they emerge for the most part unchanged, often even more criminalised and with even more barriers in their futures," Suellen Lembke, manager of evidence-based programs at Life Without Barriers, said.

"Evidence tells us that locking young people up does not lead to sustainable change, often it exacerbates the underlying issues associated with offending and allows the underlying causes around offending to continue.

"It can actually leave communities worse off in the long term."

A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed two-thirds - or 66 per cent - of youth released from detention received another supervised sentence within six months, and more than 85 per cent did within 12 months.

For those with community-based supervision orders the rate of reoffending was lower, with 40 per cent reoffending within six months and 57 per cent reoffending with 12 months.

Ms Moore said she would like to see the government invest more into community-based programs that work to intervene and prevent youth from turning to crime and being "tangled in the justice system cycle".

"Giving children the services they need to stay off the streets, well-being support and mentoring and to be engaged in more productive activities like safe social activities in sports or art and an education that inspires social cohesion," she said.

"Funding could be used for these programs instead of being funneled through the prison system.

"There is opportunity for the Dubbo police, Dubbo Regional Council, local organisations and community groups to create a community task force, working together to provide a holistic approach."

Mr Daley said his government was aware of the concerns about the changes and said they would be looking at the data over the 12-month trial to see how successful they are.

"The government is aware of concerns about tightening bail laws for young people and it has approached this change cautiously in light of the potentially serious consequences for young people and, in particular, Aboriginal young people," he said.

"This is why the change is time limited and relates to young people who are already alleged to have committed at least one offence while on bail for another relevant offence."