The Palaszczuk Government has today announced a significant new investment of $320 million in Youth Justice reforms. This is additional to a $230 million injection into the system since the welcomed transfer of 17 year olds from the adult criminal justice system to Youth Justice, bringing the total investment to $550 million.
Strategies that will now be funded include:
- Community youth responses to crime ‘hotspots’ in three locations – Brisbane, Ipswich and Cairns
- Enhanced youth and family wellbeing services to be delivered in partnership with Indigenous Family Wellbeing Services
- A transitional hub to divert young people from police custody in Mount Isa
- Community-based supervision by Queensland Police for high risk young people on bail in South East Queensland
- Eight specialist multi-agency response teams
- $28.7 million over four years for expansion of the Transition 2 Success program to help young people enter the workforce or return to school
- $27 million to expand the existing restorative justice programs
- Extension of funding for an additional Specialist Children’s Court Magistrate
- A Queensland Youth Partnership Initiative with the retail sector to divert young people from offending
- Continuation of the ‘Townsville Community Response’ including the High-Risk Youth Court, After Hours Youth Diversion Services and Cultural Mentoring
- Construction of a new 32 bed youth detention centre at Wacol near to the existing Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, at an estimated total cost of approximately $150 million, and
- $27 million to build 16 more beds at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.
In announcing the new investment, the Honourable Di Farmer MP, Minister for Child Safety, Youth and Women noted that, while the investment increases the statewide capacity of youth detention centres from 254 to 302 beds, “Our focus remains on reducing offending rates and preventing young people ever needing to be placed in detention”.
The investment represents a continuation of the Government’s Youth Justice Strategy released in 2018 which was based on ‘four pillars’ of reform – intervene early, keep children out of court, keep children out of custody and reduce reoffending – recommended by Mr Bob Atkinson AO APM in his Report on Youth Justice. Minister Farmer noted that a key element of the Youth Justice Strategy is to ensure strong engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to support them in arriving at and developing their own solutions.
PeakCare applauds the Palaszczuk Government for this new and significant investment in youth justice reforms, especially in relation to evidence-based initiatives that prevent youth crime and divert children from detention. It is particularly pleasing to note the respect being shown to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities and organisations as the best placed to design and deliver the services that will work best for their children, young people and families.
PeakCare remains concerned about the alarmingly high proportion of Queensland children and young people being held in detention on remand – around 85% compared with only around 60% nationally. In association with this concern, we are extremely concerned about the deleterious impact on the wellbeing of children and young people being accommodated for extended periods of time in watchhouses. While the newly announced initiatives will be of assistance in addressing this problem in the medium and long term, a concerted and collaborative effort by Police, legal practitioners, court personnel and the judiciary, and all government and non-government agencies who are engaged in working with children, young people and their families is needed now to alleviate this crisis.
PeakCare looks forward to studying the recently announced initiatives and providing further commentary as further details become available.
Let us know your thoughts about the new record investment in Youth Justice. Enter your comments below.
I heard Lindsay being interviewed about this on QUT News – very good and strongly stated comments about taxpayers wanting ‘bang for their bucks’ that is best achieved from investment in programs that prevent youth crime and divert young people from entering detention
A watchhouse is no place for a child. It’s bad enough that so many children are being held on remand in youth detention centres. The Government is congratulated for investing in programs to prevent children entering detention, but urgent action is needed now to get these children out of watchouses.
A mix of good and bad news. Good that the Government is funding evidence-based initiatives that will divert young people from detention. Bad news that the effects of this are unlikely to meet the immediate needs of those young people being held in watchhouses. Hopefully it won’t be a case of ‘too little’ but it is definitely a case of’too late’ for many.
Finally, as a society we seem to be moving past law and order scaremongering and people are more thoughtfully questioning what useful purpose prisons and detention centres have to offer, especially for children.
Very happy about the investment in the Family and Wellbeing Services. As you say, it’s good that Governments are finally realising that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the best placed to design and deliver the services that work best for their children and young people. We need more of that in child protection, youth justice and all areas of human service delivery. Self-determination is the key.
I heard Bob Atkinson speak at the symposium held by PeakCare late last year – an impressive man! Good to know that the recommendations he included in his Report on Youth Justice are being acted on and not sitting on a shelf gathering dust.
The problem of high numbers of children being detained on remand for lengthy periods of time is a problem that has gone on for far too long in Queensland. These are children that we are talking about. Children respond best when the logical consequences of their behaviour occur quickly. Prolonged court processes are not at all helpful especially when this time is being spent in a detention centre or, even worse, within a watchhouse!
Congratulations to the Government for taking this action
Congratulations to the Government, but if we truly want to reform this system, it needs some broader shifts in societal attitudes and values about how we perceive and value young people, especially when we know that those who are the most marginalised become the most vulnerable to engaging in offending behaviours.