Australia's over-reliance on imprisonment is failing children and communities, with staggeringly high rates of re-imprisonment despite falling numbers of young people sentenced to detention.
New figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), released on Thursday, show that over the last decade, the number of children aged 10 to 16 released from sentenced detention has more than halved — from 680 in 2014–15 to just 309 in 2022–23.
Yet the rate of return has barely shifted. Around 85% of children sentenced to detention return to custody within 12 months.
Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director, Dr Mindy Sotiri, said the data should be a wake-up call to governments that doubling down on punitive "tough on crime" policies is putting community safety at greater risk.
"At a time when community concern about crime is driving an increasing reliance on incarceration, these figures show prison is not a solution. It is a revolving door that fails children, fails communities, and fails taxpayers," she said.
The data also underscores the revolving-door nature of youth detention: more than half of all children under supervision in 2023-24 had been in detention at some point.
The AIHW report focuses on children returning to custody after sentenced supervision or detention. The report does not include the vast majority of children in detention who are unsentenced and incarcerated on remand.
Data released in the Report on Government Services earlier this year highlights the true scale of our youth justice crisis: in 2022-23 there were 4,393 children aged 10 to 17 years old who were incarcerated across the year. Almost twice this number cycle in and out of prison each year.
Dr Sotiri said this revolving-door approach entrenches disadvantage, rather than building safety.
"The data does not include the Northern Territory, which has some of the highest incarceration rates in Australia. It also doesn't capture those who turn 18 and enter the adult prison system, meaning the true scale of re-imprisonment is likely even higher," she said.
"Across the country, we are seeing a troubling shift towards politicised law-making — particularly more restrictive bail legislation. While these approaches may win headlines in the short-term, the evidence shows this doesn't make us safer — it entrenches disadvantage and drives children deeper into a failing system."
Australia's child incarceration costs surpassed $1 billion for the first time in 2023-24, up from $908 million the previous year.
The Justice Reform Initiative is urging governments to redirect funding from incarceration to evidence-based community programs that prevent crime and reduce reoffending.
"Children and young people should be accountable for their actions. But accountability should mean reducing the risk of harm happening again," Dr Sotiri said.
"Countless reports, including the Senate Inquiry into Australia's Youth Justice and Incarceration System, have highlighted the chronic lack of diversionary and bail support programs. Instead of funnelling more children into expensive and ineffective prisons, we need governments across the country to recognise that incarceration does not work to deter children from committing crime. What works is investment in programs, including First Nations-led programs, outside of prison that address the underlying drivers of why children come into contact with the youth justice system."
"It's about ensuring children have access to the right support within their communities and real opportunities to break cycles of justice system contact."
The Justice Reform Initiative has recently published a series of position papers on key reform areas including youth justice, as well as reports outlining the success of evidence-based alternatives to prison.
