Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 31 January 2025

Australia now spends over $1 billion per year imprisoning children—a figure that continues to rise—highlighting an urgent need for a national shift away from an over-reliance on a failing system.

The latest Report on Government Services (RoGS), released by the Productivity Commission late Thursday, reveals that the annual net operating costs of child incarceration surpassed $1 billion for the first time in 2023-24—up from $908 million the previous year and nearly double the $544 million spent in 2014-15.

It now costs $3,320 per day to imprison a single child in Australia, equating to $1.12 million per child annually.

This alarming increase comes despite strong evidence that youth detention fails to deter crime or reduce reoffending and causes significant harm to children who are incarcerated. Evidence submitted to the Federal Senate Inquiry into Australia’s child justice system and a suite of reports—including the National Children's Commissioner’s major Help Way Earlier! report last year—have reinforced the urgent need for systemic reform.

Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said Australia must move away from continued investment in a system that is failing.  

“For decades, the states and territories charged with administering youth justice have resorted to failed ‘tough on crime’ policies that rely on imprisonment of children and ultimately entrench cycles of crime and disadvantage – and we are paying an enormous price for this failure,” Dr Sotiri said.

“It is an incredible waste of taxpayer funds to spend over $1 billion a year locking up children. There is no doubt that this amount will keep increasing unless governments shift focus to community-led responses that address the root causes of crime.”

“The evidence is very clear that imprisonment, as it currently operates, makes reoffending more likely, causes significant harm to children, and fails to improve community safety—all while placing a growing financial burden on taxpayers.”

“At a time when every dollar matters, how much more are our leaders willing to invest in a system that is failing?”

“As the National Children's Commissioner’s report makes abundantly clear, it is time for the Commonwealth to step up and provide national leadership by working with the states and territories to deliver a smarter approach to youth justice.”

Key insights from the RoGS data include:

• Australia’s child incarceration costs surpassed $1 billion in 2023-24, up from $908 million the previous year.
• On an average day, Australia incarcerates 709 children, however there are 4,578 children imprisoned over the course of the year.
• 56% of children between 10 and 16 who are released from sentenced supervision (including community supervision) return to sentenced supervision within 12 months. NB:  Data from AIHW shows that this number is higher for children who are released from detention.  84.5% of children released from detention return to sentenced supervision within 12 months.
• State and territory governments imprison First Nations children at almost 27 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. The rate of state and territory incarceration of First Nations children’s is 26.6 per 10,000 compared to 1 per 10,000 for non-Indigenous children. On an average day, 65% of First Nations children imprisoned by state and territory governments are First Nations.
• Over the last five years, Australia has seen overall, a small reduction in the rate of children’s incarceration (in 2019/2020 it was 2.8 and in 2023/2024 it was 2.7). However, there have been significant increases in the rate of children’s incarceration in the Northern Territory and Queensland. There have also been increases in Tasmania and the ACT. At the same time the rate of children’s incarceration has decreased in NSW, Victoria, WA, and South Australia.
• Queensland imprisons more children than anywhere else, spending $251 million annually (up 15.4%). On an average night, Queensland imprisons 292 children (an increase of over 53% in five years). Qld youth detention centres operate at 99.6% capacity.
• Over the 2023/2024 year in Australian youth detention, there were 37 incidents of children being hospitalised because of self-harm or attempted suicides. 20 of these children were in WA.

Dr Sotiri urged governments to redirect funding from incarceration to evidence-based community programs that prevent crime and reduce reoffending.

“We know that early intervention and early prevention programs have the ability to reduce crime at a population level by between 5% and 31% and lower reoffending rates among children by 50%,” she said.

“Post-release support can reduce recidivism by over 60%, and investment in diversion and place-based community-led interventions, such as those led by First Nations groups, have tangible reductions in offending.

“Imagine what these crime prevention initiatives could achieve with a $1 billion investment – not to mention receiving that level of resourcing annually.”

“Not only does greater investment in crime prevention make a measurable impact, but there are numerous flow-on economic and community benefits such as re-engagement in education, improved health and wellbeing and stronger cultural connections,” Dr Sotiri said.

“Australians deserve a smarter approach and a better use of their taxpayer dollars. Instead of pouring more money into prisons, we need all sides of politics to recognise that incarceration does not work to deter children from committing crime. What works is investment in programs that strengthen community safety outside of prison that offer proven results.”

“The unanimous Senate support for an inquiry, set to be tabled in July, is acknowledgment of the need for major systemic change and national leadership to drive that change.”

The Justice Reform Initiative has recently published a series of discussion papers on key reform areas including early intervention, as well as reports outlining the success of evidence-based alternatives to prison.

Media contact:  Pia Akerman, 0412 346 746

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.