Following from a community forum held on 25^th October 2007 discussing strategies for reducing the number of young people on remand in Queensland Youth Detention Centres, the first NGO working party meeting was held at YANQ on 9^th November.

Currently the majority of young people being held in Queensland Detention Centres are on remand (approximately 70%). One of the reasons noted for this is that young people may be required to appear in court for a non-detainable offence (such as stealing a mars bar); and due to social circumstances (such as accommodation instability; poverty etc) they may 'fail to appear' in court on the required date. This failure to appear can be a detainable offence.

In some international jurisdictions, the correlation between high remand numbers and social welfare issues have been acknowledged and remedied. In Sweden, legislation and policy have worked to significantly reduce juvenile remand numbers, and in 2005 only 12 young people were detained on remand. In Canada, specific legislative clauses have been introduced stating that young people should not be detained because of social welfare issues (such as a substitute for child protection, mental health or other issues).

During the meeting on 9^th November the group adopted the name: Coalition Against Inappropriate Remand (CAIR).

The aims of CAIR are to:

1. seek a moratorium on building new youth detention centre capacity until a social impact assessment has been completed;
2. Undertake research to develop a continuum of responses to address the rates of remand;
3. Seek support of the broader sector from across the state for the continuum of responses;
4. Work with the Government to advance the responses developed.

If you are interested about the work of this group and would like to find out more email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .