Fr Mick Lowcock has added his voice for the need for some sort of youth detention facility in Mount Isa though he acknowledges funding it will be difficult.
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Speaking at the public hearing at Mount Isa last week on the Youth Justice and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, Fr Lowcock added his voice to Mount Isa City Council who support the idea of a local detention centre for young offenders.
"I know that the state government has no appetite for building an adult prison out here. As the minister said to me, 'I can build two in the south-east corner for the price of one out here.' I understand that," Fr Lowcock said.
"To build a Catholic school here two years ago was going to be twice the price of building a school in Brisbane."
Fr Lowcock said they were referred to the federal minister and that under the black deaths in custody there is a whole lot of work that needs to be done about locating things where people have their issues.
"I think the federal government in cooperation with the state government probably needs to look at what people have raised today about location sentencing and all those sorts of things," he said.
"What happens is that people get sent to Townsville and then they come back into the same environment here".
Fr Lowcock said they get a notice to say to pick them up from the airport and put them back in the same house.
"Literally, one kid cried one day and said, 'I'm not getting out of the car. Look, they're drunk. They're playing cards.' It is really difficult," he said.
"Whatever happens in detention over there does not seem to reflect what happens in terms of when we come back. For example, it would help if we knew they were doing an education program. There should be a seamless transition. The whole show needs to be streamlined a lot more so that when people are going we are able to tell them what happens, and when they are coming back we need to be told what happens."
Fr Lowcock said the court system needed addressing too.
"What happens is there is a youth court, say, on a Tuesday. The magistrate sits there, and there is the police prosecutor, your solicitor and probably someone from Youth Justice, and the poor child is there," he said.
"The magistrate says, 'Stand up,' and the kid stands up and the police read out the charge. Then the solicitor puts in a good word for the person and he sits down, and then they talk about it and the magistrate says, 'Stand up. Do you understand?' The kid mumbles, and the magistrate says, 'I didn't hear what you said,' and then the kid says, 'Yes.'
"The magistrate then just goes to the sentencing part so the kid is not involved in the process at all. They are disengaged from the whole process"
Fr Lowcock said defendants agree to whatever the solicitor says and the Murri Court process was better.
"Sometimes the solicitor might do it just to get rid of the case because it is only a small case or they have too many cases they are dealing with that day," he said,
"With Murri Court, the person is far more involved. In Murri Court, the person pleads guilty in the Magistrates Court, opts to go to Murri Court and then we have a Murri men's group or a Murri women's group. In six months or nine months time they might say, 'I'm ready to be sentenced,' so they come back to the magistrate, having dealt with the elders before they get into the court. They might get sent to Stuart for one year wholly suspended. Hardly anyone is ever sent away to jail having done the Murri Court program."
Fr Lowcock says the access to alcohol in Mount Isa for Northern territory residents is an issue and the failure of some Mount Isa Liquor Accord was not helping.
"There is an extensive amount of money being spent here and it is mainly because alcohol is so easy to produce in the Northern Territory now," he said.
" After intervention, they have this whole system of providing identity in the Territory. You have to provide your own identity and you can only buy a sixpack a day.
"There is a limit on what you can do, so you come over here with whatever you have and you can spend unlimited money. There are two significant hotels in the centre of town that will not join the liquor accord. It makes it very difficult when others around the place, clubs especially, are trying to do something and two of the significant hotels will not be part of that."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
