By Sean Healy
PERTH — Since its election in February 1993, and more particularly since the Glendalough by-election in March 1994, the Richard Court Liberal state government has heavily pushed the law and order issue.
In the by-election, Court raised a number of proposals on dealing with crime. The general theme was tougher punishments and increased police powers. After the bombing of the National Crime Authority headquarters in Adelaide, Court even suggested the reintroduction of the death penalty.
In the public eye, this campaign has two clear targets: the young and Aboriginal people. Although only 1.5% of the WA population is Aboriginal, Aborigines people account for 43% of the prison population. Young Aborigines account for 56% of the youth in custody. The WA Aboriginal youth custody rate is 33.5 per 1000 as opposed to the national custody rate of 5.2 per 1000.
Clearly, with such a large disproportion, any government measures aimed at offenders, and juvenile offenders especially, will have a similarly disproportionate effect on Aboriginal people.
According to Shawn Boyle of the Perth Aboriginal Legal Service, "the cops think that the more serious the crime, the more you should focus on it. But this ignores the whole system of why Aboriginal people got into the deep end in the first place.
"We're concerned at the government's willingness to play politics with the crime issue at the exact time that they should be sitting down at the table with the Aboriginal community to discuss solutions."
Crime decrease
In spite of all the government has said to the contrary, juvenile crime actually decreased in 1990-92, the period leading up to the passing of the draconian Serious and Repeat Offenders Act by the then Labor government. Figures from the University of Western Australia's Crime Research Centre show that the number of juveniles convicted fell from 10,513 to 6426 and the number of convictions from 39,270 to 28,657 over the period.
In addition to the dubious nature of the "crime wave", the Court government has come under fire for not addressing the question of social justice for Aboriginal people in relation to imprisonment rates. An Aboriginal Legal Service report entitled Striving for Justice, released in December 1993, points out that the great majority of the social justice recommendations handed down by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody are still to be implemented.
Of 195 recommendations considered, the report found that 111 have not been implemented adequately, 37 have been only partially implemented and only 57 have been implemented adequately.
The report highlights 10 major areas of concern, including Aboriginal-police relations, sentencing options, investigation of complaints against police officers and juvenile justice. It comments that in relation to the sentencing of juveniles, the state government legislation is "the exact opposite of the thrust of the Royal Commission recommendations".
In spite of this, the state government looks set to push the Young Offenders Bill through parliament in the coming weeks. The bill replaces the Serious and Repeat Offenders Act 1992, which lapses on June 8. Little or no consultation has occurred. Community groups in the field saw it for the first time the day it landed in parliament and were allowed only a week to respond.
Although the bill, essentially a revamp of the previous legislation, repeals some of the more objectionable provisions, such as indeterminate sentencing, many areas of it are cause for concern.
Juvenile teams
"It ignores the whole question of the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice system. Their view is that the problem is caused by not enough discipline in the home", Boyle said. "So of course, with that view, you're going to come up with these sorts of solutions."
The bill's main change is the proposed establishment of juvenile justice teams, to divert offenders from the courts. Young offenders would attend a panel which would include police, the judiciary, the parents and, sometimes, the victim, which would then decide appropriate punishment. Access to the teams would be contingent on admission of guilt. This has led to concerns that police may misuse the bill's provisions by pressuring young people to confess to offences they wouldn't have been convicted of in a court.
"Our view is that too much power is being given to the police. It needs study. Some parts of the bill are fine, but the bill is silent on young people's rights. There's no right to legal advice, so police may be the ones to decide, which creates imbalances in the system", Boyle commented.
"It is still in contravention of the United Nations Covenant on the Rights of the Child and the Covenant on Political and Civil Rights in that it allows for arbitrary detention. It even has a section which states that the principle of juvenile justice should be suspended and the interests of the community put first."
The Aboriginal Legal Service, and many other community sector organisations, are similarly concerned with the plans for "boot camps". Preliminary funding analysis suggests that these camps will cost $40,000 per child. The government has indicated a willingness to pay millions of dollars to set up the scheme, which, according to some, not even the Ministry of Justice wants. At the same time, the government has announced plans to cut funding to the Lake Jasper project, an initiative taken by the Aboriginal community to help young Aboriginal offenders outside of prison.
The widespread concern prompted by the bill and by a number of police bashings of young people has led to the ALS producing a "Charter of Youth Rights in Police Custody". The charter includes: the right to telephone parents and for legal advice, the right to have independent adults present at police questioning and the right for complaints against officers to be dealt with by independent bodies.
Police mistreatment
This follows a number of cases in WA in recent weeks involving police mistreatment of people. One involves allegations that police deliberately victimised a woman, raiding her house in the middle of the night, assaulting and abusing her, after she became involved in a minor scuffle with an off-duty police officer during a game of netball. Although the woman lodged a complaint, only one minor disciplinary action was taken against the officers. All the other charges were either found to be unsubstantiated, or the defendants were let off after counselling. The investigation was conducted within the police force.
According to the ALS, 180 formal complaints of police bashing and intimidation are lodged with them each year. A large number presumably are not reported. One such case, lodged on May 12, involved a young man who required hospitalisation after having his cheekbone, nose and brow fractured by police.
According to ALS principal legal officer Catherine Crawford, "Radical change to the culture of the police force is overdue. The present system of police investigating police is totally inadequate. Justice needs to be seen to be done. An independent body should investigate allegations against police. [This] case highlights the need for rights of juveniles to be enshrined in legislation."