Youth Justice heading in the wrong direction
Footage of a violent assault against a young person in Reiby Youth Justice Centre has been released to the ABC after a three year battle to suppress its release by the Department of Communities and Justice. In April 2025, the NSW Minns Labor Government extended temporary laws by five years that would send more vulnerable young people to prison.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said “Sending young people to prison and exposing them to the criminal justice system is not a solution for reducing crime in the community, and as this footage shows, it is a dangerous place that further traumatises young people that are already vulnerable. Sending a young person to prison is the most criminogenic thing the State can do to a person, and for too many it guarantees a life trapped in the cycle of crime and custody,”
“At the start of 2024, NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns made a captains call to send more young people, and particularly young First Nations people, to prison. He promised the laws would be temporary and told the Parliament that they would only be in place for one year,”
“At Budget Estimates hearings in early 2025, the Premier announced that more young people were in prison and being denied bail. Proof, he said, that his plan to lock up more kids was working. Stunningly, neither the Premier or the Attorney General could point to a shred of evidence that sending young people to prison actually reduces crime. In fact, all of the evidence shows that exposure to the criminal justice system increases the likelihood of a person reoffending as an adult,”
“The awful treatment of young people, and this footage clearly showing an assault against a young person who has experienced trauma, in NSW youth prisons is obscene. We must divest from the idea that prisons in NSW are rehabilitative, they further criminalise and damage young people and entrench trauma and vulnerability,”
“The investments into prison alternatives and diversion programs that have been made by the Minns Labor Government are positive. But, they are still prioritising locking up kids over genuine rehabilitation in the community. This must change, and this footage shows exactly why,” MS Higginson said.