The criminal justice system and Indigenous Australians.

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All states and territories have implemented some form of restorative justice system in the past ten years.  In most states, these systems involve pre and post-court diversionary programs which include informal and formal cautions; youth conferencing and/or circle sentencing.  The various youth conferencing initiatives are similar in their basic operation however there are some differences in their administration and in the type and number of offences which are referred to conferencing within each jurisdiction.  The recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody have largely been incorporated into conference and circle-sentencing procedures and a number of criminal justice issues facing Indigenous Australians have subsequently been addressed.  The benefits of conferencing have been widely pronounced with regard to the improved interaction of Indigenous people with the criminal justice system.  However, Indigenous Australians continue to be overrepresented in criminal proceedings which suggests, that although these systems produce positive outcomes, they are only part of the solution.

The hierarchical system of informal caution, formal caution and pre-court youth conferencing has been implemented primarily to divert youths away from entering into the formal justice system.  Depending on the jurisdiction, referrals can be made either by the police or court or both following admission of the offence by the juvenile.  The conference is convened with the young person and his or her support people, the victim and his or her support people, a police officer and the conference convenor.  Most conferences are convened by a trained facilitator with the exception the Australian Capital Territory where conferences are convened by police.  The offence and its impact is discussed in

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an environment designed to be conducive to establishing a feeling of compassion and understanding and which promotes all participants to speak freely about their experiences relating to the crime.  Often the police officer will explain the consequences of future offending to the youth and then the discussion moves to devising an agreement which the offender is legally bound to uphold.  Agreements might include providing the victim with an apology, paying monetary compensation or doing some form of work for the victim or community.  Outcomes are preferably reached by consensus however the minimum number of people who must agree differs ...

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