Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 28 October 2024
The new LNP Government has made a welcome commitment to making community safety in Queensland an immediate priority – but law and order legislation such as ‘adult crime, adult time’ and removing detention as a last resort for children undermines those efforts and risks sending Queensland backwards.
Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri urged the newly elected Queensland Government to focus its efforts on the evidence about what actually works to support community safety and prevent offending, rather than doubling down on punitive measures that makes future reoffending more likely.
“The new Queensland Government now has the opportunity to make genuine change by engaging fully with the evidence about what works to prevent crime and victimisation and to address the drivers of incarceration and recidivism for children,” Dr Sotiri said.
“The LNP’s Gold Standard Early Intervention policy acknowledges the desperate need in Queensland to move away from a youth justice system that is clearly failing children and failing Queenslanders. The LNP have also made important commitments to fund diversion, and post-release support for children leaving detention.
“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%.
“We also know that post-release support can reduce recidivism by over 60% and that investment in diversion and place-based community-led interventions, such as those led by First Nations groups, have tangible reductions in offending.
“However, the raft of legislative changes including ‘adult time for adult crime’ proposed by the LNP will undermine these simultaneous commitments to early intervention, diversion and post-release. Plans to rush through law-and-order legislation to impose harsher penalties on children will serve to pull children deeper into the criminal justice system and make it much more difficult to break cycles of imprisonment”
“Queensland already imprisons more children than anywhere else in Australia but it’s clear that this has not made the community safer.”
“Queensland cannot risk following the Northern Territory by resorting to failed ‘tough on crime’ solutions that ultimately entrench cycles of crime and disadvantage at an enormous cost to the community and to children.”
“Queenslanders deserve a smart approach to crime, and an evidence-based approach to community safety. The Justice Reform Initiative stands alongside multiple advocates, First Nations leaders, community and legal sector experts and practitioners, ready to work with all members of the Queensland parliament to develop and implement evidence-based justice policy that will genuinely build a safer community.”
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: Amy Price, 0437 027 156
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.