Hard cell: The more Queensland spends, the worse crime gets

When senior state government politicians and officials gathered to announce up to $250 million for a new fast-tracked temporary youth prison last week, two other figures were left unsaid.

The vague price tag of perhaps another $500 million for two more permanent youth prisons due by 2026 was one. The $1.4 billion this government has ever spent on youth justice was the other.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and other senior ministers have been keen to trumpet the $1.4 billion figure spent across all departments from their election in 2015 to July this year, or “almost half-a-million” spent on early intervention and prevention alone to address the issue’s complex causes.

The entry to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and West Moreton Youth Detention Centre at Wacol in Brisbane’s west.Credit: Matt Dennien

Youth offending had declined 30 per cent in the past five years, Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer promoted in parliament last month, but this is not the full story.

The site of a new youth remand centre to be opened at Wacol some time in 2024.Credit: Matt Dennien

Figures provided by her department show while the number of young people with a proven offence had declined, the number of “serious repeat offenders” annually across that period jumped by 66 per cent to 656 in the 2022-23 financial year.

But in the past two years, with the greatest uptick in serious repeat offender numbers, the government has repeatedly tightened bail laws and other measures that drive detention (which in turn contributes to whether someone is classified a serious repeat offender).

Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan, Police Commissioner Katarina Carrol, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer and Youth Justice director-general Bob Gee at the site of a new youth remand centre to be built at Wacol.Credit: Matt Dennien

The portion of young people in custody waiting for their day in court has also grown: from 80 per cent in 2014-15 to 89 per cent in the June quarter last year – a nation-leading figure.

The dollars allocated to address crime after it is committed, and address the causes of it, are not apples and oranges to compare, either.

Analysis by the Justice Reform Initiative has put the cost of detaining a child in Queensland at more than $2000 a day, compared with less expensive community-led alternatives.

Most of these kids and teens have First Nations backgrounds. Many have complex upbringings.

And detention is also likely to lead to further reoffending – something the government’s own expiring Youth Justice Strategy makes clear.

“If we send them to detention, if we lock them up and throw away the key, we know that they are almost guaranteed to reoffend.”

Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer in 2018

Yet in 2020, while setting out to build the state’s third and most recent youth prison, the people crunching the numbers made an unusual admission.

There would be none of the usual detailed weighing of costs and benefits in a business case.

The government had already decided youth wouldn’t be kept beyond their initial processing in the horrid and harmful conditions found in police watch houses.

“As a result, typical comparative economic analysis, such as cost-benefit analysis, would not provide a meaningful assessment of the project’s costs and benefits,” the public business case summary states.

In other words: we didn’t have to put on paper the calculation the government knows all too well to be true. Long-term, it is far more expensive, and less successful, to deal with most youth crime by detaining those accused of it.

The government would not respond to attempts to clarify updated cost expectations for the two new youth prisons pledged for Woodford and the Cairns region.

It would not be drawn on whether similar calculations around costs and benefits were made in those business cases.

With a powerful state parliamentary committee set to be formed this week, a national review of potential youth justice reforms and a state audit office probe into diversion spending, we might have to get answers elsewhere.