Victoria to trial ankle bracelet monitoring on high-risk young offenders

Up to 50 teenagers, some as young as 14 years old, will be tracked to ensure those charged with serious crimes adhere to their bail conditions.

Under the trial, if a young offender’s bail is breached the electronic bracelet will notify police who will be able to apply to have their bail revoked.

“We are hoping that this is a measure that will break a cycle for those high risk kids,” Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said.

The accused 16-year-old was already facing charges for violent armed robberies when he allegedly stormed Gordon’s Doncaster home.

Gordon’s bereaved sister Natalie told 9News the measure was a step forward.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s a baby step,” she said.

About 40 per cent of youth gang members currently on the Victoria Police watchlist have reoffended three times in the past 12 months.

Youth gangs remain a particular challenge to police with repeat offenders the focus of Operation Alliance, the taskforce established to tackle young criminals.

Police Association of Victoria’s Wayne Gatt said he welcomed the use of electronic monitoring devices as an alternative to incarceration.

“We’d rather not lock them up, we’d rather look them up,” he said.”This technology would help us do that.”

But Shadow Attorney-General Michael O’Brien, is convinced the devices will do little to deter repeat offenders, who he believes would wear them as “a badge of honour”.

“I don’t think somebody who’s game enough to break into your house at night armed with a machete is gonna be worried about one of Jacinta Allan’s ankle bracelets,” he said.

Greens MP Samantha Ratnam expressed concern, vowing her party would fight the measure.

“I thought about that mural that’s in Preston that some of you might know that depicts first nations people being shackled to remind us of our colonial past,” she said.

“Is this Government now asking us to consider those images once again in 2024? Shackling children?”

The government has insisted it will push ahead with youth justice reforms, which includes raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 in mid-2024, to age 14 by 2027.

But a backflip on giving children the presumption of bail has angered the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.

“It’s a betrayal to the Aboriginal community, and more young Aboriginal people will end up in youth detention,” chief executive Nerita Waight said.