By Margaret White AO and Mindy Sotiri, Courier Mail, 2 October 2024
David Crisafulli’s announcement that an LNP government would spend $50 million on a global scavenger hunt for the best “new idea” for early intervention models in youth crime is a solid step in the journey towards evidence-based policy.
In even better news, we can save him (and Queenslanders) the money and successfully drive down youth crime in the process.
That is, quite simply, because the solutions already exist.
The total $100m pledge as part of the LNP’s “Gold Standard Early Intervention” policy is a welcome acknowledgement of the desperate need in Queensland to move away from a youth justice system that is clearly failing children and failing Queenslanders.
But save Queenslanders the money — we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Countless inquiries, reports, and royal commissions, including the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory in 2017, have already done the hard work and demonstrated clear pathways to reducing youth crime through early intervention, prevention, and community-based approaches.
The issue has never been the absence of ideas; it’s the failure to properly fund, scale, and resource the initiatives we already know work.
A recent report by the Justice Reform Initiative highlights more than 100 examples of successful alternatives to imprisonment, including early intervention programs that reduce crime at a population level by between 5% and 31% and lower reoffending rates among at-risk youth by 50%. For instance, nine out of 10 young people with a prior offending history who participated in the Johnathon Thurston Academy ‘You Got This’ initiative in Cairns did not reoffend within 9 months.
Queensland taxpayers are already footing a $218 million annual bill on locking up more children than anywhere else in Australia, a system overflowing into adult watchhouses, and the LNP doesn't need to spend millions more searching for what we already know.
Place-based community interventions, such as those led by First Nations groups, have delivered enormous success. Small-scale community programs like Resolve in Logan have shown tangible reductions in crime, all while delivering major cost savings compared to the expensive, destructive, and ineffective practice of locking up kids. A 2023 evaluation by Griffith University found that young people in the Resolve program, which provided early intervention for at-risk young people aged 12 to 16, experienced marked improvements in housing, education, family dynamics, and mental health. Most importantly, it gave young people hope—something the traditional justice system often strips away.
Research has shown therapeutic detention models that focus on rehabilitation and substance dependency treatment have recidivism rates as low as 2%. Systematic reviews of interventions that involve cognitive-behavioural therapy have shown reduction in reoffending of 21-35%. Similarly, child skills training programs were found to decrease anti-social behaviour by anywhere between 24-32%.
Queensland could also learn from different models of youth justice internationally, such as the remarkably successful Diagrama centres, a pioneering alternative youth justice model in Spain that is wholly focussed on educating young people and preparing them for release. Of the 757 young people who attended a Diagrama centre in 2011, only 13.6% had been placed back in custody by 2017.
Research has for decades shown that investment in a wide-variety of community-based early intervention as well as developmental crime prevention policies and initiatives is key to preventing offending and diverting children away from the justice system. These are models that have been tested, refined, and proven to reduce crime and reoffending. So, why are we still acting like the solutions are out of reach?
In fact, a dollar invested in early childhood education yields a two-dollar return, according to an economic analysis of early intervention resourcing in Australia. The cost of late intervention in Australia is a staggering $15.2 billion annually, with $2.7 billion (18%) of that attributable to youth crime alone. The financial and social incentives for investing in early intervention are clear—yet, instead of scaling up successful models, Queensland's leadership is still throwing money in the wrong direction.
Rather than pouring millions into a vague global search, the LNP – and governments at all levels – should focus on funding and scaling the interventions that are already making a difference. A genuine opportunity exists in Queensland, and Australia more broadly, to invest in the scalable, community-led solutions that we already know work.
The research is there. The programs exist. The blueprint has been drawn up.
It is up to our politicians to inform themselves about what is known to work and be champions for the changes that will make communities safer – and it won’t cost $50 million to do so.
Margaret White AO is former Judge of the Queensland Supreme Court and Queensland Court of Appeal, and former Royal Commissioner into the Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. Dr Mindy Sotiri is executive director of the Justice Reform Initiative.