Youth Justice in Gippsland Region
The Juvenile Justice program is responsible for providing case managed services to statutory clients on community based and custodial orders, as well as to young people on remand in a Juvenile Justice centre.
Juvenile Justice provides case managed services to statutory clients on community based and custodial court orders as well as to young people on remand in Juvenile Justice centres. In Gippsland, Juvenile Justice units are situated in the Morwell, Sale and Bairnsdale Offices and provide outreach to the whole of Gippsland.
The Juvenile Justice system is underpinned by a commitment to the diversion of young offenders whenever appropriate from intensive penalties. This aim recognises that unnecessary penetration into the justice system can have the unintended consequence of increasing the likelihood of an offender's further involvement in crime.
Entry to the program is via the Children's Court, Criminal Division for young people who offended when aged 10 - 16 years, and adult courts (usually the Magistrates Courts) for 17 - 20 year olds receiving an Adult Youth Training Centre sentence.
The Juvenile Justice workers' role is to:
- Provide the courts with advice, which informs the courts' decisions in dealing with young people
- Supervise those young people who have been sentenced and placed on a community-based order and those who are paroled as part of their custodial sentence
- Advocate for service access and provision which will optimise the chances of young people on Juvenile Justice orders continuing their lives with less risk of offending
Juvenile Justice funds a range of specialist interventions and programs in Gippsland including:
- Koori Justice programs in Gippsland are located in Morwell, Bairnsdale and Lake's Entrance
- Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality (MAPPS) - a therapeutic program working with adolescent sex offenders
- Group conferencing - a diversionary program run via the Children's Court
- Housing Pathways program - providing housing to young people exiting juvenile justice centres on parole
In Gippsland, the juvenile justice units maintain strong links with Child Protection, Disability Services and the broader health and welfare service system in order to work collaboratively to ensure the delivery of a high quality service to clients.
