Australian Human Rights Commission
Current issues and good practices in prison management, 16 November 2023
likewise encouraged ‘all governments to address the deeper issues pervading
youth justice as a matter of urgency’.68
43. The National Children’s Commissioner is currently conducting a project to
investigate opportunities for youth justice reform across Australia, based on
evidence and the protection of human rights. The project’s findings and
recommendations will be reported to the Commonwealth Attorney-General
through a National Children’s Commissioner’s Statutory Report under section
46MB of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth). This report
will be presented to the Attorney-General in the first half of 2024.
44. This project is gathering information through a range of processes, including
a review of existing literature and research, submissions from experts and
organisations, and a series of stakeholder interviews and roundtables across
Australia. It is also holding targeted, face-to-face consultations with children
and young people at risk of, or in contact with, youth justice systems across
the country.
45. As has been noted by the Disability Royal Commission, ‘[t]he overriding
approach in youth detention should be person-centred and recovery-based
rather than punitive. A rights-respecting approach is needed to provide
humane conditions of detention.’69 The Commission of Inquiry into Child
Sexual Abuse has also stated ‘an effective youth detention system is one that
provides children and young people in detention with timely access to highquality, developmentally appropriate therapeutic supports, education and
health care, as well as support to address the underlying causes of their
offending’.’70
Youth Detention Population June Quarter 2018 - June
Quarter 2022
600.0
500.0
400.0
300.0
200.0
100.0
0.0
Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun
QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR QTR
2018 2018 2018 2019 2019 2019 2019 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021 2021 2021 2021 2022 2022
First Nations Young People (Average)
Non-First Nations Young People (Average)
71
11