This is the classic hospital handball to the courts. No one is getting life for an aggravated home invasion. Mushroom madame Erin Patterson got a minimum of 33 years for killing three people and nearly killing a fourth.
There are eight people in the prison system who were sentenced to life with no minimum and they are all multiple murderers.
When these offenders appear in the County Court and are convicted, the judges have sentencing guidelines. For a 14-year-old first-time offender who pleaded guilty to committing five home invasions with no one seriously injured, the sentencing would likely be between two years or a suspended sentence.
Even if the 14-year-old killed three people during a home invasion, they still wouldn’t get sentenced to life.
Both the let-em-out and lock-em-up lobbies fail to understand that it is always a middle ground that works.
Not enough punishment and they will do it again. Too much and they will be institutionalised and do it again.
One of the best experts in the field Anne Hooker has had remarkable success working with young prisoners and has turned around many from crime with her programs inside Port Phillip Prison. The Churchill Fellow says relatively short prison sentences can work.
“Many young offenders think, ‘I don’t care so why should I care about anyone else?’ They don’t belong and the only ones that matter are their peers, which is why they join a gang,” she says.
“These young men missed out on the basics. We had the conversations these kids never had. They have to learn there are consequences, both good and bad.
“Some of them have missed the very basic lessons of life. Inside jail the consequences are immediate while outside they are not. It sounds basic but it works.”
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She had business leaders talk to them, developed anger management programs and built a business run by inmates.
But instead of contributing, she is presently unemployed. What a bad joke.
Meanwhile, one of the fixable core problems remains ignored. The legal system takes too long to deal with cases, which is why young offenders are bailed.
They can’t be kept in prison for more than a year waiting for their trial when they may not even be sentenced to that long in jail.
They are released without immediate consequences and see no reason not to continue offending.
As Hocking says, the punishment should be immediate. To fix that would require a massive commitment, and until that commitment is made, the rest is window dressing.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
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