Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 28 February 2025
The Justice Reform Initiative has welcomed the interim report of the first Senate Inquiry into Youth Justice, which highlights the urgent need for Commonwealth leadership to drive system reform and ensure child justice is made a national priority. It also highlights the importance of the Senate continuing to pursue the Inquiry, ensuring critical reform does not become a casualty of Federal Election politics.
The interim report, tabled on Friday following 223 submissions and testimonies from 40 witnesses, found “significant and disturbing” evidence into the incarceration of children in Australia and strongly recommended further consideration in the Federal Parliament.
As Senator David Shoebridge noted, there was “almost unanimous evidence” presented to the Committee that across Australia, prison was not being used as a last resort for young people. There was “near universal agreement” that the current system, where states and territories are charged with administering youth justice systems “is damaging children, endangering communities and must not continue.”
The Committee also noted that international human rights obligations rest with the Commonwealth, and, where states and territories defy these international standards, there is a clear case for direct Commonwealth action.
Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said it was time for the Commonwealth to act, calling for cross-party commitment to accept the Committee’s recommendation and ensure youth justice reform remains on the national agenda.
“Australia is failing its children every day with the current politicised approach to youth justice. As this interim report makes abundantly clear, imprisonment, as it currently operates, causes significant harm, makes reoffending more likely, and fails to improve community safety,” Dr Sotiri said.
“From across the country, submissions from 223 children’s advocates, First Nations leaders, young people, academics and NGOs desperately argued for change and for the Commonwealth to step in. This is an important start to Australia’s first nationwide Inquiry into youth justice and incarceration – but it can’t stop there.
“We need to keep kids out of politics and ensure the upcoming Federal Election does not derail this critical work. It is a national responsibility to ensure that there are systems, services and supports available to all Australian children who need help, and to ensure that the rights of the most vulnerable children are upheld.
“Parliamentarians from all sides of politics need to take youth justice out of the war zone of party games and commit to keeping this issue firmly on the agenda of the National Cabinet, coming together to support evidence-based policy which reduces crime and builds safer communities for everyone.”
Australia’s first nationwide inquiry into youth justice and incarceration was unanimously carried by the Senate in September, following the tabling of the National Children’s Commissioner’s ‘Help way earlier!’ report, which detailed the devastating state of the justice system for children in Australia and called for child justice to be made a national priority.
The Inquiry is investigating the outcomes and impacts of child incarceration across Australia, the over-incarceration of First Nations children, and the systems' treatment of the human rights of children in detention. Importantly, the final report, due to be tabled in July, will for the first time examine the Commonwealth's international obligations in regard to youth justice.
The most recent Productivity Commission data shows Australia now spends more than $1 billion per year imprisoning children at a cost of $3,320 per child per day – or $1.12 million per child per year.
Youth detention fails to deter crime with 84.5% of children released from detention returning to sentenced supervision within 12 months. Australia is also failing on its commitment to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. First Nations children are incarcerated at nearly 27 times the rate of non-Indigenous children, with 65% of children in detention on an average day being First Nations.
Dr Sotiri said that in order to build a different kind of youth justice system, we need to look closely at significantly increasing investment in community-led, evidence-based alternatives.
“We know that early intervention and prevention programs can reduce crime at a population level by up to 31% and lower reoffending rates among children by 50%. Post-release support alone can reduce recidivism by more than 60%. First Nations led Place based programs have also significantly reduced crime and increased school engagement. The problem is that these programs are not funded adequately,” Dr Sotiri said.
“This Senate Inquiry provides a critical opportunity for state and territory collaboration to develop a national model of best practice and look closely at resourcing. We need national leadership to shift away from an over-reliance on incarceration and toward evidence-based solutions that prevent crime, support children, families, and communities and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent in ways that actually make a difference.”
“The Justice Reform Initiative thanks the Chair and the secretariat for producing this interim report in a limited timeframe.”
The Justice Reform Initiative has recently published a series of position papers on key reform areas including youth justice, 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.