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Global youth justice leaders say WA can follow world's best examples

Justice Reform Initiative

by some of the world's most successful reform jurisdictions, according to three international experts who have spent the past week in Australia sharing lessons from systems that dramatically reduced youth imprisonment while improving community safety.

As the WA Government doubles down on building more detention infrastructure, the international delegation visited Banksia Hill Detention Centre this week before meeting with Western Australian community leaders at a breakfast event on Thursday. The WA Cook Labor Government declined an invitation to meet with them.

The experts — who have overseen transformational youth justice reform in New York, Spain and Hawai'i — come from jurisdictions that once faced the same entrenched challenges as WA, including overcrowded detention centres, high reoffending rates, and the overrepresentation of Indigenous children. Each has been part of dramatic, evidence-based change through strong community and justice partnerships, genuine investment in prevention, diversion, and therapeutic responses alongside strong political leadership.

Their visit to WA follows appearances at the national Reintegration Puzzle Conference in Adelaide, and evidence given to both the NSW Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth Justice and the Federal Senate Inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system.

Rather than relying on more detention, the international experts pointed to approaches centred on government and community working together; recognition of the importance of government agencies and the judiciary being connected; early intervention, therapeutic care, community-based responses and strong partnerships with First Nations communities and community sector partners.

None of these jurisdictions believed this scale of change was possible when they began. Each faced entrenched challenges, political pressure and public concern about crime. Each chose to work across government and with community to build a system that reduced incarceration while improving community safety.

• New York State has reduced the number of children in prison by 82% over two decades. In New York City, fewer than 100 children are now placed from Family Court into any kind of secure facility, compared to 1,300 twenty years ago.
• Spain’s Diagrama model has lowered recidivism rates to around 15%, compared to historical levels of around 85%, through facilities staffed by social educators rather than security officers.
• Hawai’i has closed 80% of its youth detention centres, reduced youth crime overall by 86%, and by 2022 had zero girls incarcerated for the first time since 1961 — through a public health model built on culturally grounded prevention and community support.

The Justice Reform Initiative, which brought the global experts to Australia, said the situation in WA reflected a national pattern of governments responding to concern about crime with more detention, despite evidence showing there are more effective ways to improve community safety.

“Western Australia is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on more detention infrastructure while the evidence and the people who have lived it in practice are telling us there is a better way,” JRI Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said.

“The experts have been where WA is now. They know what it takes to turn a system around. WA has strong community engagement, it has a skilled community sector, it has First Nations expertise. What it needs is the political leadership to take a different approach.”

The visit comes as Western Australia continues to invest heavily in custodial responses, including a new $100 million maximum-security youth detention facility, despite evidence showing detention is expensive, increases the likelihood of future offending and disproportionately impacts Aboriginal children.

The international delegation's visit provided an opportunity to discuss practical reforms that have transformed youth justice overseas.

Justice Reform Initiative Chair Robert Tickner AO urged governments to adopt international best practice to reduce crime and address the underlying issues bringing children into contact with the criminal justice system. 

"These international experts have come from places that once faced many of the same challenges we see in Western Australia today, but had the courage to change course,” Mr Tickner said.

"They have shown that you can reduce the number of children behind bars, reduce reoffending and improve community safety at the same time.”

“It was a missed opportunity for the WA Government to hear directly from people who have successfully delivered the kind of reforms governments around Australia are searching for."

International experts visiting WA:

• Vincent Schiraldi (USA) – Former New York City Correction Commissioner, instrumental in policies that led to an 85% reduction in youth incarceration.
• David McGuire (Spain) – Senior leader at Fundación Diagrama, which delivers rehabilitation programs with significantly lower recidivism outcomes.
• Matelina Aulava (Hawaiʻi) – Director of Hawaiʻi’s Office of Youth Services, driving a shift to culturally grounded prevention and public health-informed approaches to youth justice.

Contact details:

Amy - 0437 027 156