Media Release: State and Territory governments must set targets to reduce numbers of young people in detention

One of Australia’s leading providers of services to disadvantaged young people has called on state and territory governments to set targets to reduce the number of juveniles in custody and increase alternative justice or ‘diversionary’ programs to achieve their aims.

On the eve of the National Juvenile Justice Summit in Melbourne (Thurs-Fri, 25-26 February), Mission Australia said almost all state and territory governments currently had the wrong policy settings for effectively tackling juvenile offending.

Mission Australia’s spokesperson, Anne Hampshire, said research and experience had proven the best approach to reducing juvenile offending was not putting young people in custody but providing them with access to programs that addressed the issues at the heart of their behaviour, eg: family stress, poor literacy/numeracy, lack of skills, unemployment and substance abuse.

Such programs are not only more successful but significantly cheaper to run.

“There’s a real lack of consistency across states and territories when it comes to tackling the issue of juvenile justice,” said Ms Hampshire.

“Victoria leads the country and both the Tasmanian and NSW governments have recently engaged in reviews of their approaches, but elsewhere it appears governments seem happy to lock young people up in increasing numbers – despite all evidence showing it doesn’t work.

“There are around 630 young Australians locked up every day (2007/08 figures which exclude NSW). Both the numbers (up by 17%) and the rate (up from 1.7 to 2.0 per 1000) at which young people are placed in custody has increased.

“Putting young offenders in custody is not only expensive but ineffective – most of those released will re-offend. Detention also intensifies the need for greater levels of support post-release.

“And when you look at the population of juveniles in custody, almost half report some form of serious abuse in their past, including violence and neglect. Do we really think detaining a young person with that sort of background is an appropriate response to their problem?

“These are hardly good outcomes, particularly when you consider it can cost in excess of $150,000 to keep a young person in custody for 12 months.

“From Mission Australia’s own experience, programs to divert young people away from detention can cost as little as $3200 per individual. In one of our NSW juvenile justice initiatives, 65% of participants had not re-offended a year after leaving the program.

“In a similar Victorian program we run, only six of the 188 young participants received further summons or charges after exiting.

“If governments were genuine about tackling this problem they would commit themselves to reducing the number of young people – particularly minority groups – in detention and setting targets that can be monitored,” said Ms Hampshire.

Media contact: Paul Andrews (02) 9219 2080 or 0409 665 495