‘System in crisis’: Aussie state that locks up the most kids

Police in one state are locking up more children than any other jurisdiction despite prisons costing taxpayers more than $1bn annually.

Hundreds of children are locked up in Queensland prisons every night new data reveals, with taxpayers tipped to shell out more than $1bn a year to keep offenders behind bars.

The report by advocacy group Justice Reform Initiative details an “over-reliance” on prisons in the Sunshine State, where incarceration rates have jumped by 44 per cent in a decade.

As many as 267 children are imprisoned across the state on an average night – a rate more than three times higher than in the more populous state of Victoria, the report writers found.

It comes after a staggering increase in youth detention, which rose by 41 per cent between 2019-2020, at a time when NSW and Victoria both recorded decreases in kids being locked up.

Justice Reform Initiative executive director Mindy Sotiri said evidence overwhelmingly showed incarceration had failed to deter crime or protect the Queensland community.

“The research is very clear that imprisonment not only fails to reduce crime but does so at extraordinary expense and harm to the community,” Dr Sotiri said.

As many as 267 children are imprisoned across the state on an average night.

“This is a system in crisis. We need to follow the evidence and focus attention and resources on programs that build pathways out of the criminal justice system.”

Dr Sotiri said dramatically increasing prison populations would hit taxpayers hard, with thousands of people cycled through the prison system without rehabilitation.

The report found annual operating costs of prisons across Queensland was more than $859m annually for adults and about $218m for children.

Planned prison expansions across the state and two new youth detention centres are set to cost taxpayers more than $1 billion in coming years.

“These expansions are an incredibly shortsighted investment in a system that doesn’t work,” Dr Sotiri said.

“Queensland’s leaders need to acknowledge the policy failure of incarceration and work alongside stakeholders.

“We are standing by ready to help the state move towards a system that genuinely builds a safer community.”

Justice Reform Initiative executive director Dr Mindy Sotiri said dramatically increasing prison populations would hit taxpayers hard. Picture: Twitter

The Justice Reform Initiative, which includes many former politicians, has instead called on state governments across the country to commit to “evidence-based” alternatives to prison.

The report found that early intervention and prevention programs reduce crime by between 5-31 per cent and cut offending among at-risk populations in half.

Alternative detention models, such as incarceration with a focus on alcohol and other drug treatment, also recorded recidivism rates as low as 2 per cent.

The report comes amid a renewed focus on responses to youth crime after Queensland Police released a documentary that advocates claim showed officers violating arrest rules.

High youth crimes in the Northern Territory and riots at Banksia Hills Juvenile Detention Centre in Perth have also garnered national attention in recent months.