Juvenile Diversion Scheme Northern Territory
This paper gives an unofficial summary of the Juvenile Diversion Scheme. It discusses what is involved with the scheme such as the agreement, legislative amendments, administration, aims and principles, types of diversion, the operation of the scheme, and some recommendations. Much of this paper is based on information gained from the National Crime Prevention website from the Attorney Generals Department, the Police General Orders and the Northern Territory Police, Juvenile pre – court diversion scheme overview. This is due to the scheme being new, and there being a lack of information readily available to the public. The Juvenile Diversion Scheme works in conjunction with the Aboriginal Interpreter Service, however, this paper will only discuss the Juvenile Diversion Scheme. Why is there a need for a Juvenile Diversion Scheme? The Juvenile Diversion Scheme (JDS) was introduced to the Northern Territory (NT) for the purpose of replacing the Mandatory Sentencing laws that were put into action in 1997. ... The commonwealth government was conscious to the fact that the laws developed in the NT were a matter dealt with by the Territory alone, however, the Commonwealth Government was greatly concerned about the impact the mandatory sentencing was having on juveniles in the N. ... The Commonwealth government entered into an agreement with the NT government to repeal the mandatory sentencing laws and introduce the Juvenile Diversion Scheme. Agreement made by the Commonwealth Government and the Northern Territory government. A statement was released on the 10th of April 2000 by the Commonwealth government’s, Prime Minister John Howard, and the then Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Dennis Burke. ... Signed on the 27th July 2000, was a formal agreement, made by the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory to administer solutions to the issue. The agreement came into effect on 1st September 2000, and it formally introduced the Juvenile Diversion Scheme to the Northern Territory. The agreement expires on the 31st August 2004, and “specifies that a new agreement shall be negotiated and agreed prior to 1 March 2004” (Northern Territory Police, Juvenile pre – court diversion scheme overview, pg 1). The Commonwealth has dedicated $5 million per year to the Juvenile Diversion Scheme in conjunction with the Aboriginal Interpreter service for a period of 4 years. ... In the first year, specific allocations of the money were given, for example, · $2,489,000 to the Northern Territory Police to set up the Juvenile Diversion Units and to conduct family conferencing and other diversionary measures. · $1,338,490 to purchase community-based diversion programs. ... Also expressed under the agreement is that there are to be reviews conducted to show the progress of the scheme. ... In order to support the Juvenile Diversion Scheme (JDS) there were amendments made to the Juvenile Justice Act and the Community Welfare Act. ... 1) This Act now allows Police to divert the juvenile to a diversion program instead of charging them with an offence (Attorney Generals department, National Crime Prevention, legislative amendments, 2002,www. ... The Police General Order J1 Juvenile Pre-Court Diversion was introduced, which replaced the Police Interim Policy. ... It works in conjunction with support from the Juvenile Diversion Units located across the Northern Territory (Attorney Generals department, National Crime Prevention, Juvenile Diversion Scheme, 2002,www. ... Administration of the Juvenile Diversion Scheme. The Northern Territory Juvenile Diversion Scheme (NT JDS) is based on the scheme that is used in Wagga Wagga, NSW (Attorney Generals department, National Crime Prevention, legislative amendments, 2002, www. ... JDS took place by the Commissioner of Police issuing an Interim Policy Statement by Gazette on 24th August 2000 (Northern Territory Police, Juvenile pre – court diversion scheme overview, pg 1). Due to legislative amendment, the Police Administrations Act now has four levels of diversion for the pre-court process of Juveniles. This amendment gave legal effect to the agreement between the Northern Territory and the Commonwealth (Northern Territory Police, Juvenile pre – court diversion scheme overview, pg 1). In the Northern Territory, Police are responsible for the development and implementation of the Juvenile Diversion Scheme. A Juvenile Diversion Division and two Juvenile Diversion Units (JDU) have been established in Alice Springs and Darwin to organise the functioning of the scheme (Northern Territory Police, Juvenile pre – court diversion scheme overview, pg 1).