Victoria’s Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, Andrew Jackomos, has called for urgent action to support Aboriginal children, who make up about half of the nation’s youth currently in detention.
In a statement released on the eve of Australia Day, Commissioner Jackomos (who is of Greek and Aboriginal heritage) said: “We must urgently address the high rates of Aboriginal children languishing in our youth justice detention centres so that we can all truly feel proud to be Australian”.
Aboriginal youngsters in Victoria continue to be removed from home and placed into state care at alarming rates and continue to be grossly over-represented in the youth justice system.
The Independent Visitors Program (IVP) operated by the Commission for Children and Young People found that 16 per cent of all children and young people detained in the state’s youth justice detention centres were Aboriginal when it visited centres at Parkville and Malmsbury this month.
The commission is also concerned about the escalating rates of children on remand and has recently sought to monitor the conditions of detention more closely.
For Aboriginal children, being separated from family, kin and community can compound their loss of identity, culture and community.
Commissioner Jackomos has been vocal in his calls to reform the Victorian Bail Act to introduce criteria that are specific to children, and to ensure that breaches of bail do not of themselves trigger police arrest and incarceration.
The Bail Amendment Bill 2015 is due for debate again next month. Commissioner Jackomos says reform to the Bail Act is a “no brainer” and has pleaded with all sides of politics to support the amendments “for the benefit of all our children”.