Youth Crime

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:26): Supplementary: does the minister acknowledge that incarceration and locking kids in a cell in the absence of rehabilitation and intervention simply does not work?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:27): I thank the honourable member for her question. It is a very, very good point. The members opposite, and the inexperienced member who comes out on this a lot, would probably not mention anything about intervention programs or rehabilitation, but they are critically important. If we can stop young people becoming involved in the criminal justice system, then it's much more likely that a young person won't turn to a life of crime as an adult.

As part of our youth offender plan, we have committed $3 million for intervention programs specifically aimed at those young people, those serious, recidivist offenders who find themselves in contact with the criminal justice system far too much. We want to do things so that those young offenders today don't become young offenders as adults, and that is a measure that is designed squarely at community safety in South Australia.