CAN YOU GET INTO THE DRUG COURT?
After years of successful operation in Dandenong, this year the Drug Court was finally expanded and is now running at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.
The introduction of the Drug Court is illustrative of a slow creep of intelligent and creative sentencing options. It is an example of one way that the Justice system is finally embracing the widely held opinion that drug use is a health problem, with connected criminality often being a symptom of addiction.
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THE 4 Main Changes to the Sex OFFENDERS RegistRATION ACT
Proposed changes to the Sex Offender's Registration Act will introduce a new 'Registration Exemption Order'. These orders can be made by a court when someone is found guilty of certain Sexual Offences, if certain conditions are met. The amendments will address the problem of young people being placed on the Sex Offenders Register in circumstances where they pose little or no risk to the community, and is a change which has come all too slowly.
5 REASONS A SUPERVISED INJECTING ROOM IS A GOOD IDEA
In February 2017 a bill was introduced proposing the creation of a Safe Injecting Room in Richmond, Victoria. Here are 5 reasons why the Bill should be passed:
- Analysis of the Kings Cross injecting room in Sydney has shown that community concerns about the room drawing more drug users to the area have not been realised;
- Studies have shown that while the Kings Cross injecting room has been in place, calls from that area to Ambulance services have decreased by 80 percent;
- There is no evidence that crime rates rise in areas where there are safe injecting rooms;
- Safe Injecting Rooms save lives, and free up the already stretched Emergency Services to deal with other emergencies;
- The current and long standing approach to drug use in the community is blatantly ineffective.
CONTACT US NOW IF YOU HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH A DRUG OFFENCE
BAIL: WHAT WILL CHANGE?
After the tragedy in Bourke Street in January, community concern about Bail laws soared.This was a misplaced concern, as it was clear that access to adequate mental health services was really the pressing issue in that case.
Nonetheless, the Government called for an immediate review into Victoria's Bail laws, and the resulting recommendations may well lead to some significant restrictions on when a person is likely to be granted bail.
IS YOUTH DETENTION DOING THE COMMUNITY ANY GOOD?
Our lawyers appear regularly for Children charged with criminal offences. Recent focus on Youth Detention is therefore something which is very relevant to our practice.
There has been a lot of media attention given to the recently released report of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. The Royal Commission found that the detention centres visited were not fit for accommodating children and young people, and that whilst in those centres, children were subjected to violent restraint, verbal abuse and humiliation and damaging practices of isolation.