Senate youth justice inquiry finds ‘reform is required’

A landmark Senate inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system has found “compelling” evidence of the need for change, concluding that community-based diversion, early intervention and prevention programs are more effective and less costly than criminal justice responses to reduce offending and improve public safety.

The Justice Reform Initiative welcomes the report, released by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee today, and its recommendations for the Commonwealth to take a greater role in working with states and territories to ensure the best outcomes for children and communities.

The committee’s recommendations are:

• that the Attorney-General work with state and territory counterparts to take the necessary steps to introduce national minimum standards in relation to youth justice in Australia
• that the Attorney-General, in cooperation with state and territory counterparts, establish a cross-portfolio National Child and Community Safety Taskforce comprising Commonwealth, state and territory child justice and policing bodies as well as education, social services, health services including disability services, legal services and employment departments and agencies to coordinate national reform to Australia’s youth justice system.
• that the Australian Government undertake an education campaign focused on children and young people in conflict with the law which provides evidence-based information on youth crime, as well as highlighting the benefits of alternatives to the incarceration of children to community safety and wellbeing.
• that the Senate Community Affairs References Committee undertake an inquiry into the factors that contribute to youth incarceration in Australia including access to health, education, disability, community, social and legal services.

Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said the report was a significant step towards the much-needed reform to reduce the number of Australian children in prison, reduce the harms of incarceration, and make communities safer.

“This report makes it clear that Australia’s current approach to youth justice is failing children, failing taxpayers and failing communities. It is especially failing First Nations children and communities. Children experiencing significant disadvantage are being funnelled into a justice system that causes harm and increases the likelihood of future offending.

“The committee has found that the current approach is expensive, fails to address the causes of children and young people offending, and does not keep the community safe in the long term.

“It is now time for decision makers to step up and take action. This is the latest in decades of reports highlighting the enormous failures of our system. We cannot let more children and more communities suffer harm.

“Significantly, the committee has also recommended an education campaign to challenge the false narrative that youth crime is growing, drawing on actual crime data and providing evidence-based information. We welcome this initiative and urge governments on all sides of politics to stick to the facts around crime and community safety.

“We need our leaders to move away from politicised policy making and take a clear-eyed look at the evidence about what actually works. We also need honesty about the failure of our current approach to youth justice. The evidence is clear that prison does not work to rehabilitate; it doesn’t work to deter, and it certainly doesn’t work to address the drivers of crime.

“The report outlines multiple examples of evidence-based approaches including intensive bail support, early intervention, diversion, family support, community-led programs and First Nations place-based programs, all of which build pathways away from the justice system for the children who need it most.”

Anne Hollonds AO, former National Children's Commissioner and Justice Reform Initiative spokesperson, also welcomed the report:

“We have never been closer to real evidence-based reforms that will protect the human rights of children and also make communities safer,” she said.

“More work now needs to be done. We have the evidence, we have the recommendations. What we need is the political will to act, for political leaders to have the courage to implement evidence-based approaches that have been proven internationally to prevent crime and make communities safer.”

The Justice Reform Initiative is a multi-partisan alliance supported by more than 120 of our most eminent Australians, including two former Governors-General, former Members of Parliament from all sides of politics, academics, respected Aboriginal leaders, senior former judges, including High Court judges, and others who have added their voices to end Australia’s dangerously high reliance on jails. 

The Initiative is calling for governments around Australia to move away from an entrenched reliance on incarceration as the mainstay of the criminal justice system and adopt an evidence-based approach to deliver better results for taxpayers, communities and people in the criminal justice system. 

The Initiative respectfully acknowledges and supports the current and longstanding efforts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reduce the numbers of Indigenous people incarcerated in Australia and, importantly, the leadership role which Indigenous-led organisations continue to play on this issue. We also acknowledge the work of many other individuals and organisations seeking change, such as those focused on the rate of imprisonment for women, people with mental health issues, people with disability and others.