Foster Care Victoria

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh appeared on the ABC’s Life Matters the other day discussing a new scheme to jail parents who leave children unsupervised to do things such as gambling, drinking or shopping.

While most of us would agree that leaving young children unsupervised for long periods of time for any reason is unwise and potentially life-threatening to these children, it seems like a huge jump from there to incarcerating their absent parents. Let’s think about our goals here for a minute - surely the primary problem here is that young children are being left without a caregiver for long periods of time? This being the case, incarcerating their primary caregiver, therefore making them unable to provide care for their child at all, seems like a rather self-defeating measure.

We must also take into account the huge cost of such an exercise as well as the potential strain on the already struggling foster care system. By putting in to place such a scheme we would also be knowingly placing some of the most vulnerable members of society in a criminogenic environment, which is in itself a major concern.

Surely the sensible thing to do is provide education and support to assist parents in understanding the needs of their children. Sanctions may be appropriate for repeat offenders, but let them be productive - compulsory attendance at parenting programs or a supervision order. More primary caregivers in prison is not going to solve anyone’s problems, least of all those of the child.

The audio can be found here, and a related article from the ABC website can be found here.