Locking up more kids not enough: JCU criminologist warns of need for rehabilitation to stop cycle of reoffending

More kid offenders will get locked up in Queensland with the removal of detention as a last resort, but if we don’t do more to rehabilitate them the cycle of reoffending will only continue, a criminologist warns.

More kid offenders will get locked up in Queensland with the removal of detention as a last resort, but if we don’t do more to rehabilitate them the cycle of reoffending will only continue, a criminologist warns.

James Cook University Criminology Professor Glenn Dawes said the bottom line of the Premier’s recent decision to remove the “detention as a last resort” clause was that more young offenders would end up in detention centres like Cleveland Youth Detention Centre.

He warned that while locking kids up will be a short-term fix for the youth crime crisis, it wasn’t going to cut the mustard in the long run. 

In order to break the cycle of reoffending, Professor Dawes said a lot more early intervention work still needed to be done to stop kids ending up in detention in the first place.

But when they do end up there, he said the government still had it’s work cut out to rehabilitate kids in detention to ensure they don’t return.

Professor Dawes said the reality is that detention isn’t a deterrent punishment for most young offenders, particularly recidivists, with 85 per cent of those who get sent to detention returning within 12 months.

“The other figure we need to keep in mind is that almost 90 per cent of children released from detention are allegedly reoffending within 12 months,” he said.

James Cook University criminologist Professor Glenn Dawes warns of need for more rehabilitation in detention to stop cycle of reoffending. Picture: Shae Beplate.

“It’s showing us, to some degree, that detention currently doesn’t actually rehabilitate young people, it’s warehousing young people and taking them off the streets.

“Perhaps in many ways, that’s a good thing because people are very conscious of their safety and are sick of having their cars stolen and broken into. Everyone’s very aware of that, particularly in Townsville.

“But if we’re talking about turning young people around so they don’t do it again, you’ve got to question the ability of detention centres to do that, and I think that’s what we need to start looking at.”

Professor Dawes said one of the current problems with the detention centres is young people’s access to education has been somewhat lacking due to the number of lockdowns.

As a part of his current research, he said he spoke to young people who have been in lockdown for over two weeks in some cases.

He also highlighted the need for more community-based facilities, particularly in rural, remote areas like Mount Isa, where people have to travel thousands of kilometres to go to detention, often for short periods of time.

Originally published as Locking up more kids not enough: JCU criminologist warns of need for rehabilitation to stop cycle of reoffending