Queensland is the only State in Australia that locks up 17 year olds in adult (rather than juvenile) prisons. This is a human rights abuse, going against the United National bill, as ratified by the Australian Government, that eighteen should be the legal age of adult imprisonment. This also goes against Queensland's own anti-discrimination commission, and the Children’s Commissioner and The Queensland Law Society.

How long will we stand back and watch this happen? YANQ has been working for over a decade against this state of affairs, and we need your help in our campaign to stop the Queensland Government locking up children in adult prisons.

After 15 years of inaction, it is time to STOP locking up children in Queensland's Adult prisons and time for the Juvenile Justice system to include 17 year olds.

Download our campaign kit for more information and how to act now!

Jailing young people in ever larger numbers is not the answer to tackling youth crime according to a professor from the London School of Economics.

In a recent opinion piece in the UK's Guardian newspaper, Prof. Rod Morgan argues that the costs of jailing more and more young offendors are far too high.

The article is available online at http://society.guardian.co.uk/youthjustice/comment/0,,2016087,00.html.

In this editorial piece the New York Times argues that: "The United States made a disastrous miscalculation when it started automatically trying youthful offenders as adults instead of handling them through the juvenile courts."

Read the full story online at the New York Times website.

The Youth Advocacy Centre (YAC) has decided it is time to re-launch our Campaign on the 17yr old issue. We are calling it the Castaway Campaign – because 17 years olds are the castaways of the legal system in QLD. They are denied the rights of youth in the Criminal Law, yet they do not have the rights of adults in the other areas of the law.

We have some really exciting ideas around the campaign and we are looking to see who would be interested in supporting us.

At this stage we need:

• Names and contact details of anyone keen to stay updated on the campaign. We will send regular emails to let you know what is going on and how you can support us.
• A group of young people that may be interested in the issue and are willing to work with us for 1-2 hours on a creative project. This could be a pre-established group or even done at a drop-in
• Anyone with creative skills that wants to help out!

Please email or call Chelsea Leach (Community Legal Education Officer) on Ph: 07 3356 1002 M: 0407 628 074 E:Chelsea@yac.net.au  if you want to stay in the loop or if you can help out with the creative workshop and young people.

*Queenslanders who are 17 years old are dealt with in the adult criminal justice system, in contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.***

*Queensland is the only Australian state or territory where this happens.***

*For ways you can help, please check the YAC website at www.yac.net.au***