In the past two years alone, Ms. Townsend has seen more therapeutic services, educational and vocational programs on offer for close to two-thirds of the teens who come through her doors and, for youth who do end up in prison, a focus on transitioning back to their home community, “so there’s a greater chance for successful re-entry.”
Now, her organization is almost a victim of its own success: As youth-incarceration rates are halved in a matter of years and the state looks for ways to save money, the organizations dealing with imprisoned youth are seeing cutbacks of their own.
“Certainly, we’ve had some very significant cuts,” Ms. Townsend said, “but the investment in education and re-entry stays.”
Australia
For more than two decades, youth-incarceration rates in Australia trended in one direction: down.
That started to change about four years ago, when the trend was reversed and the number of young people being put in custody rose – by as much as 40 per cent over two years in one state.
This spring the government of New South Wales responded to consternation over rising rates of teens locked up by pledging to review the Bail Act, a law critics point to as a major factor in sending more youth to jail since it was last amended in 2007.
The Bail Act, a product of Australia’s most-populous state, was supposed to crack down on offenders of all ages who’d been dodging bail or breaching conditions. But it had the unintended result of sending youth-incarceration rates soaring, especially for teens awaiting trial.
Now, the state’s premier has vowed to change that.
“There’s been a lot of outcry,” said Kelly Richards, a senior researcher with the Australian Institute of Criminology. “It’s been identified as a big problem given that detention is supposed to be the last resort. Obviously, it’s not quite, perhaps, being used as it should be.”
Feedback from readers on the youth crime series:
“Incarceration and crime rates are significantly less in Europe because they pour more money into community prevention programs, rather than spending after a crime is committed. It's a simple business model–be pro-active, not reactive.”
- CanuckInTor
“I am a former social worker and a former cop. It has been my experience that most ‘bad’ kids will grow up and become like the rest of us, just trying to feed our families. We have all done stupid things as kids. Throwing a kid in jail is not the solution, unless we need to be protected from the little darling. They only get victimized by predators and learn to be much better criminals.”
- Cheryl9608
“I would hope that youth advocates realize the value in publicizing the names of young criminals. Maybe then their parents would have an incentive to make sure they behave. But there is an industry built up around the idea that families can't take care of their own, so we have to hire a lot of disinterested strangers to take care of them.”
- Terry McManus
