Media coverage - The Drum: Kids in limbo, Australia's growing reliance on juvenile remand

Throughout Australian jurisdictions detention is considered an option of last resort in combating juvenile offending, with custodial sentences imposed only when other diversionary measures have failed, writes Daniel Feher.

“Despite this principle, the number of youths remanded in detention has nearly tripled since 1981, with 60 per cent of young people in Australian detention centres held without sentencing. This figure points to a need for better youth justice programs to keep kids out of lockup, and underlines the greater problem of how to combat chronic juvenile offending by at-risk youths…

“With research condemning juvenile incarceration, and the costs involved becoming increasingly difficult to justify, it is not surprising that findings from government and community welfare organisations are calling for a shift towards intensive support programs instead. The South Australian Social Inclusion Unit's To Break The Cycle report and Mission Australia's publication Juvenile Justice Snapshot are just two of many recent calls for action.

“They recommend empowering at-risk youths with a sense of control over their lives and minimising the time they spend in custody, with the findings stimulating a range of community, government and non-government initiatives across Australia in dealing with the issue, many of which are reporting high success rates.

Read more at The Drum

Another doorway opens for at-risk youth

Mission Australia, in partnership with Juvenile Justice in NSW, has opened a new rehabilitation centre for youth with drug and alcohol problems.

The 50-acre property located on the banks of the Macquarie River, in regional New South Wales, has been completely remodelled to cater for eight young people aged from 13 to 18 at a time.

The new centre provides a welcome rural setting for youth to receive individualised programs including therapy, counselling and education.

James Toomey, Mission Australia’s National Operations Support Manager, told Dubbo’s Daily Liberal that the program is followed up for a further six months of outreach work after the youth leave The Mac River Centre and re-enter their community.

A community support worker will support the young person and their families when they leave the centre to help prevent relapse.

“The program is unique because of the age group targeted. Because it is aimed at 13- to 18-year-olds. It is recognised there is a need, that their age group isn’t catered for,” said Mr Toomey.

Juvenile Justice NSW Deputy Chief Executive, Valda Rusis, told The Daily Liberal that the centre aims to support young people though education and vocation to lead to a productive and healthy life.

"We have strong community networks in the area. We view this facility as a great example of a community working together to achieve good outcomes for these young people," Ms Rusis added.

This program is based on the model developed at Mission Australia’s Triple Care Farm and will help the youth learn routine responsibilities of rural life such as, feeding chickens, tending a vegetable garden and raising poddy calves.

Have your say, young Australians: Mission Australia’s National Survey of Young Australians will draw to a close in just over two weeks time, so act now if you want to be heard.

Photo:  from left, Mission Australia’s Ann Winterton, Talbragar Wiradjuri descendent Coral Peckham, Deputy Chief Executive of Juvenile Justice Valda Rusis, James Toomey of Mission Australia and Juvenile Justice’s Leonie Bender.

Photo courtesy of The Daily Liberal

Media coverage - Sydney Morning Herald: Juvenile detainee findings a ‘damning indictment’

A government reporting revealing that half the young people in NSW juvenile detention facilities were abused as children, and nearly 40 per cent of the girls were sexually abused, is a "damning indictment of approach to juvenile justice," said Mission Australia's State Director Leonie Green in today's Sydney Morning Herald.

Herald journalist Adele Horin wrote that the Justice Health and Juvenile Justice report painted a bleak picture of young people in the state's juvenile prisons. It reveals that nearly one-third of the girls have been pregnant, with the average age of first having sex 13.1 years for Aboriginal youngsters and 13.6 for non-Aborigines.

Thirteen was also the average age the detainees reported first being drunk.

The 2009 NSW Young People in Custody Health Survey also states that more than 27 per cent of incarcerated young people (and 40 per cent of young women) had a history of foster or kinship care.

Ms Green said the current approach to juvenile justice relied too heavily on locking up young people and not enough on diversion programs.

"When you look at the population of juveniles in custody, how can anyone believe that detention is an appropriate response?" she asked.

"These young detainees are a product of years of violence and neglect, and many have intellectual disabilities."

According to today's Herald, between the last health study in 2003 and the 2009 survey, the proportion of incarcerated youngsters who are Aboriginal rose from 41.7 per cent to 47.8 per cent, while they represent 4 per cent of the state's adolescent population.

Read Adele Horin's article here 

Visit Mission Australia's Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island resources page for our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), the latest indigenous news, current affairs and policy updates.

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