Today, the Victorian Government introduced the Justice Legislation Amendment (Community Safety) Bill 2025 to the Legislative Assembly of Victoria. The bill includes a range of reforms that will cause direct harm to children who are already experiencing violence, trauma and abuse while failing to achieve community safety.
The Victorian community legal sector is united in rejecting this legislation. Through our work with children at risk of entering or in the criminal legal system as well as victims of crime, we know that locking children up exacerbates the drivers of crime and represents a significant failure of multiple systems that are supposed to keep children and communities safe.
Children deserve support, not prison sentences. We urge decision-makers to reject this bill in its entirety.
One hundred community organisations have signed an open letter to the Victorian Premier strongly opposing the youth justice sentencing reforms.
The bill introduces life sentences for aggravated home invasions and aggravated carjackings, escalates certain offences charged from the Children's Court to the County Court, and exposes children to adult sentencing powers in the County Court for a number of offences. These reforms take a punitive approach that does not reflect expert advice or the abundance of evidence showing that incarceration is not only linked to recidivism but is in fact a strong determinant of it. This link is particularly strong among children. The bill also introduces a new offence for using a knife while committing other offences, including assault, threat to assault, affray and violent disorder.
In 2024, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that 85 per cent of 10-12 year olds given a custodial sentence received another sentence within 12 months of their release, opposed to 57 per cent of those given community-based supervision. This is backed by research from the Australian Institute of Criminology, among others. The University of Oxford similarly concluded from analysis of data from 33 countries that people given custodial sentences were more likely to reoffend that those given community sentences.
Given the evidence that incarceration does not reduce offending, we believe this bill to be ineffective at achieving its primary objective of keeping communities safe.
The bill fundamentally shifts Victoria away from a child-centred, evidence-based youth justice system by removing imprisonment as a last resort, and the principle that rehabilitation and development are the most effective ways to reduce offending for children and young people.
Incarcerating children goes against abundant scientific evidence (backed by the Australian Medical Association and medical organisations from all over the world) that children are less capable of understanding actions and consequences than adults because their brains remain undeveloped until well into their 20s. If a child is unable to fully process the implications of their actions, incarceration is unlikely to deter them from engaging in criminal activity. Children have also been shown to have far greater capacity than adults to change, when provided with appropriate rehabilitative supports.
All the evidence that we have seen points towards rehabilitation as the most effective way of reducing youth offending.
Almost every child in Victoria who is in or at risk of entering the criminal legal system has experienced out-of-home care, homelessness, trauma, family violence and/or disability. This bill fails to recognise them as victim survivors themselves and does not address these risk factors that put some children on a trajectory to disengagement and crime, instead entrenching them in the criminal legal system.
We ask the Victorian Government to abandon this unevidenced approach and instead to invest in rehabilitation, connection to family and culture, education, mental health care and housing, to prevent children from engaging in criminal activity and to keep communities safe.
Louisa Gibbs (she/her), CEO at the Federation said: "Community legal centres, who work with both victims of crime and children at risk of entering or in the criminal legal system, unanimously oppose the changes to youth justice sentencing.
"Adopting an evidence-based, child-centric and preventative approach to youth offending isn't being 'soft on crime' - it's pragmatic policy based on evidence of what works best for individuals and community safety. Let's recognise that locking kids up is a sure way to create cycles of recidivism, and that social and health responses are the true pathways to safety for everyone in our community."
Lee Carnie (they/them), CEO at Youthlaw said: "The youth justice sentencing reforms tabled today are a dark stain on Victoria's human rights record. Removing the requirement that imprisonment be a last resort for children is a dangerous step backwards and out of step with Australia's international human rights obligations. It will lead to more kids jailed for longer instead of the Victorian Government investing in what actually works - keeping kids in school, wraparound legal-social supports, and early intervention."
"Longer prison sentences will hit hardest for children who have experienced homelessness and violence themselves. These youth justice sentencing changes will only compound their trauma, driving them deeper into the criminal justice system and reducing chances of rehabilitation."
Bryanna Connell (she/her), CEO at Barwon Community Legal Service said: "In regions like Barwon, young people already face higher rates of school disengagement and limited access to specialist services. These reforms will hit hardest in communities where disadvantage is concentrated and early intervention options are scarce. Forcing 14-year-olds into adult courts and exposing them to lengthy sentences will not make our region safer, it will entrench cycles of harm.
"Real safety comes from investing in local, trauma-informed programs that keep young people connected to education and family, and include legal education about rights and responsibilities. When young people understand the law and their options, they are better equipped to make informed choices and avoid harmful pathways. Just as importantly, we must address the underlying causes of offending - poverty, trauma, and lack of opportunity - if we truly want safer communities."
Sohini Mehta (she/her), Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said: "Kids deserve care, not cages and life sentences. The Allan Government's proposed laws will arbitrarily condemn children as young as 14 to irreversible harm and an incredibly bleak future behind bars.
"Removing the safeguard that imprisonment is the last resort for children, and pipelining more children into prison for longer, undermines children's rights under Victoria's Charter of Human Rights and breaches Australia's binding obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
"If the Premier cared about children and community safety, she would listen to the evidence and urgently invest in the supports - like housing, healthcare and community-led programs - that reduce harm and strengthen communities."
Nerita Waight (she/her), CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service said: "This governments knee-jerk response to all things justice related is getting tired and speaks to a lack of leadership. We know that children are more likely to be diverted from the justice system when they are supported and given the opportunity to heal and learn in safe ways - not by being in prison.
"Locking children up and throwing away the key is not the answer in fact it just ensures generational incarceration will continue unabated. Investment in self-determined solutions, prevention, early intervention and diversion programs is the answer. Abandon this bill and invest in evidence-based solutions."
