A CLEAR higher rate of children held on remand across the Grampians region are being locked up for their crimes compared to peers in Melbourne, Geelong and the state's south-west.
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Sentencing Advisory Council's new report, released this week, shows 46 per cent of Grampians children on remand receive a custodial sentence while about two-thirds across the state do not.
The council's deputy chairman Lisa Ward said custodial outcomes in the year-long study period were far lower in the Grampians region (13 compared to 52 in the south-west) but still highlighted great disparity in outcomes for vulnerable regional children.
This has sparked the board's calls for a more specialist Melbourne Children's Court model to be expanded into regional areas. This would include greater 24-hour youth support for bail justices.
The study found children whose cases were finalised in rural and regional courts were almost four times more likely to be Indigenous and twice as likely to be female than children appearing in Melbourne courts.
In the Grampians, eight per cent of cases were female and none of these girls were Aboriginal, which goes against the state trend. More than 30 per cent of children held in remand were girls in the Barwon South West judicial region, including Geelong and Warrnambool.
But 23 per cent of Grampians children held in remand were Aboriginal boys.
The Grampians judicial region takes in Stawell, Ararat and Horsham to the border.
Ms Ward said many regional Victorian children were sentenced by magistrates and remanded by bail justices without dedicated, specialist children's services like those found in Melbourne.
"Fifty-three per cent of young people remanded statewide are bailed two-to-three days later. This highlights a need for greater after-hours supervision support until facing the court," Ms Ward said. "There are some gaps in bail support.
"We know bail works best for children when the support adult can help navigate what are often very tricky bail conditions. A lot of children do not have that adult support. (A bail support program) will help in filling that gap successfully."
We know bail works best for children when the support adult can help navigate what are often very tricky bail conditions. A lot of children do not have that...support
- Lisa Ward, Sentencing Advisory Council deputy chairman
The study found associated with lower rates of custodial sentences for children held on remand included: being released on bail before the end of a case; spending less time on remand; their most serious alleged offence being a property damage or threat offence.
Ms Ward said reducing the use of remand could improve life outcomes for those children, result in significant cost savings, and make the community safer.
