Worth A Second Chance

Almost everywhere in Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested, charged, and imprisoned. Email your MP asking them to #RaiseTheAge of criminal responsibility to keep young children out of prisons and in schools, playgrounds and communities – where they can be held to account for their actions and supported to reset their lives.

Almost everywhere in Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested, charged, and imprisoned. Email your MP asking them to #RaiseTheAge of criminal responsibility to keep young children out of prisons and in schools, playgrounds and communities – where they can be held to account for their actions and supported to reset their lives.

Email your local MP

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We are asking Australians to join with us to call for the age of legal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 14. We believe young people are Worth A Second Chance.

Send a message to your lower and upper house MPs and join the campaign via the form below.

Find your local rep

Subject:

I write to you as a concerned member of the community and a supporter of the Worth A Second Chance campaign for more fair, humane and effective youth justice systems.

Momentum is building across Australia to raise the age of criminal responsibility: an evidence-based and compassionate reform that would make a real difference in the lives of young people on the margins.

For years, Australia languished behind the rest of the world in supporting these young people. Every state and territory could arrest, charge and imprison 10-year-old-children – subjecting them to the isolation and harm of the prison system, which high reoffending rates demonstrate to be ineffective, and increasing their likelihood of offending into adulthood.

I believe children belong in playgrounds, not prison. I’m glad to see strong leadership from governments who agree: the Northern Territory has raised the age of criminal responsibility to 12, the Australian Capital Territory will soon follow suit, and Victoria has also announced plans to raise the age. I welcome and encourage this reform.

But we can, and must, do better.

Medical experts and United Nations human rights standards agree the minimum age of criminal responsibility must be 14. Experts agree younger children have not developed the social, emotional and intellectual maturity necessary for legal responsibility. Simply locking up vulnerable young children, rather than addressing their behaviour, starts a cycle of incarceration that is hard to break.

Children who come into contact with the youth legal system are likely to have faced a tough start to life. I believe the most effective approach to prevent these children’s trajectories into the legal system is to address the issues driving their vulnerability, including family dysfunction, trauma, abuse and neglect.

Prison should always be used only as a last resort and that children must have every possible opportunity to be diverted away from prison and connected to school, their families and community.

We cannot wait any longer. I urge governments across Australia to raise the age of legal responsibility to 14 years, and put in place restorative responses that work with families, schools and communities to support – rather than punish – vulnerable children.

Jesuit Social Services’ discussion paper on this topic outlines a range of practical ways in which children can be held to account for their actions and supported to reset their lives: https://jss.org.au/articles/raising-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-there-is-a-better-way/

All children are worth a second chance – which is why I call on you, as my local representative in Parliament, to please represent these concerns.

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