Children who offend could see their sentence deferred to give them an opportunity to address their behaviour, as part of Government plans to provide an alternative to suspended sentences.
The new measures are detailed in a draft memo to Cabinet by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee. The memo was circulated last month.
As part of a new piece of legislation, the Children (Amendment) Bill 2024, a new measure known as a deferred sentence supervision order (DSSO) could be introduced as an alternative to suspended sentences for children. A DSSO will be imposed if a judge decides that a sentence of detention is the appropriate penalty. The judge could then defer the sentencing hearing for up to a year.
During this time, the child will be under the supervision of the Probation Service with a view to addressing their offending behaviour. If the child complies with the terms of their probation, then the judge will discharge the child. However, if the child fails to engage with the Probation Service, the judge will then make an order for detention in Oberstown.
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This overall plan will provide the child with a last chance to deal with their offending behaviour before detention is ordered, the memo states.
In 2016, the Office of the Attorney General advised the Department of Children and Youth Affairs that it is legally unsafe for any court to suspend a period of detention given to a child. In November 2017, the Court of Appeal confirmed that there is no power to suspend, in whole or in part, sentences of detention for children.
In July 2019, the Government approved plans to draft legislation to ensure that there are sufficient alternative sentencing options to fully and partly suspended sentences.
However, rather than providing a legislative framework for suspended sentences for children, the focus is now, instead, on looking at alternative sentencing options.
There will also be changes to detention and supervision orders, to ensure that the supervision element of the sanction can be enforced once a child turns 18 years old. Ministers were told that these orders have been underutilised because the supervision portion is currently unenforceable when a child turns 18. The Department said it considers the value of these orders to be “immense” for young people leaving detention.
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