Newcastle Herald (ACM): Children as young as 10 can be imprisoned. Advocates say it isn’t working

Excerpt from the Newcastle Herald: She stole a can of tuna because she needed to eat. He couldn’t live at home because the violence was so bad he ended up on the street with the wrong crowd involved in petty crime. His seven older siblings were all incarcerated. He had no positive role models.

These are some of the stories social workers told ACM about children who end up in the criminal justice system.

Raise the Age NSW campaign lead Emily Mayo told ACM that ‘tough-on-crime’ approaches to children haven’t worked.

“We are churning generations of young children through a system that is proven to create crime, not prevent it,” she said.

“That’s bad policy and ultimately bad for all of us.”

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