Today we read on
Adelaide Now website that an 18 year old Aboriginal youth believed to be a Gang Of 49 member has been arrested in relation to a recent spree of serious crimes. He was on 'home detention bail' at the time. This is basically good news. However, it does support a claim made by a large percent of the community that clashes violently with the opinions of justice officials. They say that putting these individuals in jail doesn't work. We say that letting them out doesn't work.
The fact that this person was on home detention bail is one more nail in the coffin of the public's belief in the competence of judges and their associate justice experts.
It's not that we don't want to trust these people. It's not that we don't want to believe in their cutting-edge ideas of altering the mentality of offenders through constructive means. These are noble and worthwhile objectives.
Neither do we suggest that they ought not to at least try to achieve these goals.
What we do suggest is that a conservative approach is the most appropriate. There are some offenders who clearly ought to be behind bars until it can be demonstrated that decent-living people, their children and defenceless elderly relatives will remain unfailingly safe when the individual is released.
While there remains a question mark over that, public safety requires that an offender be removed from society, or released under such stringent observation that offending becomes impossible.
If there wasn't a question mark, yet a released offender commits serious crimes which endanger lives and property, then we must assume that either no-one was asking the question or that whoever answered it was either dreaming, dishonest or blasé about the outcome.
