Number of youth behind bars in Victoria soars

The rate of young offenders being locked up in Victorian prisons is soaring at an alarming rate, a report has revealed.

Young offenders are being locked up in record numbers while half of all young parolees are being sent back to prison.

The soaring rate of youth incarceration is detailed in the 2019-20 Youth Parole Board annual report, published today.

It revealed an alarming increase in the number of young people behind bars with remand orders blowing out from 946 last year to 1324.

While 160 parole orders were issued, 83 youths had the orders cancelled for either reoffending or failing to comply with strict parole conditions.

Formal warnings to young offenders also jumped from 22 to 40.

The Board attributed the increase in warnings to a focus on risk.

“A key consideration for the Board in deciding whether to cancel parole is the safety and protection of the community,” the report found.

“The Board will cancel parole if the risks of the young person remaining on parole have come to outweigh the benefits of the young person continuing on parole.

“Review of parole cancellations has highlighted the corrosive impact that disengagement from school or work has on the likelihood of an individual successfully completing parole.”

The Adult Parole Board, in its annual report, revealed there were 898 prisoners on parole as at June 30, the highest number since 2015-16.

For the fourth consecutive year the board reported more than three quarters, 78 per cent, of parolees had completed their orders.

Four parolees were convicted of committing serious violent offences or sexual offences.

However the board said that represented a 93 per cent reduction from when the Board first reported on it in 2013-14.

[e-mail]