"The Cost of Incarcerating Children in Australia with Unclear Safety Benefits: A Billion-Dollar Expense"

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Advocates have described spending on youth justice as “indefensible” as costs rose to over $1.5 billion nationally over 2023-24.

The Productivity Commission’s report on government services, released on Thursday, has found that the vast majority, more than $1 billion, is spent on keeping children in youth detention.

First Nations children face disproportionately higher rates of exposure to the youth justice in all jurisdictions – particularly the Northern Territory and Queensland – and in all categories: community based supervision, group conferencing and detention.

Advocates say the alarming increase in spending comes despite strong evidence that youth detention fails to deter crime or reduce reoffending and causes significant harm to children who are incarcerated.

It now costs an average of $3,320 per day to imprison a child – equating to $1.12 million per child annually.

Anaiwan man Blake Cansdale, national director at Change the Record, said in a statement to NITV that the scale of the spending was indefensible.

“If even a fraction of these public funds were redirected to therapeutic supports for children, family-strengthening programs and culturally responsive services, we could build a system that prioritises justice reinvestment – one that breaks the cycle of disadvantage instead of reinforcing it,” he said.

“Rather than a ‘tough on crime’ mentality, which serves the interests of nobody other than politicians that espouse such positions, we need to focus on primary health-based and social supports that address the underlying socio-cultural, emotional and economic causes of offending behaviour by vulnerable and at risk children.”

Justice Reform Initiative executive director Dr Mindy Sotiri also said it was an “incredible waste” of taxpayer funds to spend such an exorbitant sum locking up kids.

“There is no doubt that this amount will keep increasing unless governments shift focus to community-led responses that address the root causes of crime,” she said.

“The evidence is very clear that imprisonment, as it currently operates, makes reoffending more likely, causes significant harm to children, and fails to improve community safety – all while placing a growing financial burden on taxpayers.

“At a time when every dollar matters, how much more are our leaders willing to invest in a system that is failing?”

Two different stories

Dr Sotiri told NITV that the data shows two different stories across the country – one of rapidly increasing incarceration in the NT and in Queensland, while Victoria has significantly reduced the number of children going to prison, with smaller reductions in NSW, WA and SA.

“What we can see also are two different stories when it comes to what’s happening for First Nations children and what’s happening for non-Indigenous children,” she said.

“So even in places like NSW, which is trending down, you are still seeing increases in the number of First Nations children who are incarcerated.”

The numbers in the NT and Queensland are expected to be even worse in the next reporting period, as the new Country Liberal Party and Liberal National Party governments have implemented harsh youth justice laws.

“The NT and Queensland have very politicised approaches to policy-making that are having this really harmful impact in terms of sending large numbers of children into custody without investing in the kinds of things in the community that would make a difference,” Dr Sotiri said.

The data in the report shows that, of the youngest children in detention, aged 10–13 years, nearly three quarters (74 per cent) were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

State and territory governments imprison First Nations children at almost 27 times the rate of other children.

On an average day, nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of children imprisoned by state and territory governments are First Nations.

The data also shows that the vast number of kids who have been incarcerated end up back behind bars (84.5 per cent).

In Queensland 132 children aged 10-13 were detained in the 2023-24 year, 82 per cent of whom were First Nations.

“We know that many of these children have also had prior contact with the child protection system,” Queensland Family and Child Commissioner Natalie Lewis, a Gamilaraay woman, said in a statement.

“At 10, they should be in Grade 5 – learning, playing, and growing.

“Instead, they’re caught in a system that does not recognise their childhood and is incapable of providing the support and care required.”

In the NT, the CLP lowered the age at which a child can be put in detention back to 10, after the previous Labor government had raised it to 12.

The CLP is also considering removing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child placement principle for kids in child protection.

Gwoja Labor MP Chansey Paech told NITV that placing young children into a detention centre at an early age significantly increases the likelihood that they will have a lifelong relationship with the criminal justice system.

“Research consistently shows that detention often perpetuates cycles of criminal behaviour rather than prevent it,” he said.

“We still have a critical opportunity to jump in and support at risk youth, preventing them from becoming entangled in a system that is often not equipped to rehabilitate.

“To make meaningful change we must address the root causes of crime – factors such as poverty, lack of educational opportunities, economic instability, and inadequate housing.

“Rather than focusing on expanding the prison system, we need to prioritise comprehensive and community based programs that offer education, mental health support, vocational training and mentorship and investing in partnerships and prevention strategies that will reduce recidivism and create those pathways for people to thrive breaking the cycle before it begins.”

Roll call of pain from coast to coast

Queensland imprisons more children than anywhere else, spending $251 million dollars on youth justice annually.

Over the 2023/2024 year in Australian youth detention, there were 37 incidents of children being hospitalised because of self-harm or attempted suicides.

20 of these children were in WA.

Mr Cansdale and Dr Sotiri both urged governments to redirect funding from incarceration to evidence-based community programs that prevent crime and reduce reoffending.

“Rather than a billion dollars being spent each year on locking children up, imagine what would happen if we had that sort of investment in the kinds of evidence-based alternatives that we know actually make a difference,” Dr Sotiri said.

Change the Record, a not-for-profit, that works to address the over-representation of Indigenous people behind bars, has consistently called for a different approach, one that shifts funding away from failing punitive systems and towards First Nations-led solutions that address the root causes of youth offending: poverty, intergenerational trauma, family violence, inadequate housing, and systemic racism.

“The solutions exist, they have been working in communities for decades,” Mr Cansdale said.

“It is time for governments to stop pouring billions into prisons and start investing in early intervention, diversion, and healing-centred community-based responses that actually give children a chance at a better future.

“No child should grow up behind bars.

“If we are serious about keeping our children safe, reducing crime, and making communities stronger, governments must stop throwing money at failed policies and start listening to our communities, who have the answers.”