Guest Speaker - Michael Antrum

Geoff Hamilton introduced our guest speaker this week, Mr. Michael Antrum, Magistrate here in Wagga for the last four years. Michael has a long involvement in criminal law from the bench and from the bar and is known to be fair and supportive of youth who come before him. He competed in the Cycle Challenge and commented that he thought that the beer and cider festival afterwards was a stroke of genius as the thought of it was what kept him going for the latter half of his ride!

 

Michael has represented all sides of the legal system, and has a particular interest in Children’s Law. The application of the Bail Act is particularly hard thing to deal with when applied to children. The process of sentencing with regard to children was explained, there being a particular emphasis on rehabilitation, rather than a more formulaic approach to sentencing that is the case with adults.

 

It is important to remember that kids can be rehabilitated; at the younger end of the spectrum, they can appear at age 12. Between 12 and about 14 they are reasonably likely to be able to be turned around, but later, and particularly by about 16-17, they are likely to be reappearing at adult courts. It is important therefore to try and turn them around early.

 

Many agencies become involved in this work of rehabilitation, and they work together to try and help. We as a society are much better off if we can do this than if we take the simplistic “shock jock” approach to a prescriptive, harsh stance on youth crime.

 

Various gradations of sentencing are available for youth offenders, from cautions, bond, youth justice conference, through to control orders, fines and detention. Youth justice conferences have come in for criticism as too soft, but they serve a very useful purpose in the suite of measures available to a court. Again this must be seen as part of the arsenal to rehabilitate young offenders.

Michael told us he had been on the bench for some four years, and reassured us that he is human by relating the story of his first appearance at Wagga when he sat at the incorrect bench then proceeded to misread the time and curried favour with the local legal fraternity by giving them an extra long lunch-time. Although now scheduled to soon be moving on, he has enjoyed his time in Wagga immensely and as mentioned earlier has involved himself in community events.

 

As a final line, he reminded us that bail, another misunderstood and criticized part of the justice system, is not a punishment; it is granted to people who are accused but not yet tried, let alone found guilty, a distinction sometimes forgotten by some people.

 

The interested club members eagerly threw up some questions, including one of the responsibility of parents in children’s justice. Basically parents are in fact not responsible for the actions of their children, although it is possible that they may have a responsibility for damage caused. Michael commented that in his experience kids mucked up because they were hungry – there were a whole lot of issues going on in the home before they appear in court.

 

When asked about gangs and his views on them, Michael opined that rigorous enforcement was the way to deal with gang problems. He made the analogy of the response to Al Capone, where that gang was attacked with every legal measure possible, at any level, to make life unbearable for them and ultimately break them.

 

A final question was asked about whether the Children’s Court record transitions to an adult court. Michael explained that while the record of the Children’s Court exists, it is not a criminal record and so has different bearing in the adult system.