HOW can a 14-year-old girl be left with nowhere to go because her family don’t want her and she is too young for a refuge?
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Albury Children’s Court yesterday heard the girl must remain in custody after she pleaded guilty to breaking into two Lavington homes on Monday.
The girl is estranged from her mother and grandmother, but that means she has nowhere to live.
She is barely into her teens and should be in school before moving on to a full life, not being held in custody.
Yet it is too easy to see the girl entering a cycle with the potential for repeated incarcerations unless there is an intervention of some kind by family and/or authorities.
The girl needs to have a safe place for her to live and the opportunity to complete her education with sufficient discipline that keeps her out of trouble.
The circumstances of the break-ins, where the girl and her accomplice, also 14, terrorised a family while ransacking their home, and broke into another house while the owner was there, mean both may face a period in custody.
However, what happens when that sentence is completed and how do authorities ensure the cycle of crime doesn’t continue into adulthood?
