Amy Remeikis reports in the Brisbane Times (7.8.16) on the potential move by the state government to increase the minimum age at which young offenders can be jailed as adults in Queensland.
‘Queensland is inching closer to removing children from its adult justice system, as it approaches its 25th anniversary of breaching international law.
‘In what was meant to be a ‘temporary’ measure, Queensland broke ranks with every other jurisdiction in Australia in 1992, with the Goss Government moving the age a person is considered to be an adult by the justice system from 18 to 17, in defiance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and international law.
‘While the Palaszczuk Government has wound back Newman Government measures that saw sentencing removed as a last resort for juveniles and the transfer of children to adult facilities on their 17th birthday, if they had 6 months or more remaining on their sentence, the number of children in adult prisons has continued to grow.’
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