New York, Spain and Hawai'i point to lower detention and safer communities

Three overseas youth justice leaders told Western Australia it can cut youth imprisonment and improve community safety without building more detention beds.

Their visit came as the Cook Labor Government keeps expanding detention infrastructure, including a new $100 million maximum-security youth detention facility.

During the Western Australian trip, the delegation toured Banksia Hill Detention Centre and met community leaders at a breakfast event on Thursday. However, the WA Government declined an invitation to meet them.

The visitors were Vincent Schiraldi, former New York City Correction Commissioner, Fundacin Diagrama senior leader David McGuire, and Matelina Aulava, director of Hawai’i’s Office of Youth Services.

All three worked in systems that once faced overcrowded centres, high reoffending and the overrepresentation of Indigenous children. In each place, reform relied on prevention, diversion, therapeutic care and stronger links between government, courts and community services.

Before arriving in Perth, the delegation appeared at the Reintegration Puzzle Conference in Adelaide. They also gave evidence to the NSW Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth Justice and the Federal Senate Inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system.

Banksia Hill and global reform results

New York State cut the number of children in prison by 82% over two decades. In New York City, Family Court now sends fewer than 100 children to any secure facility, down from 1,300 about 20 years earlier.

In Spain, the Diagrama model cut recidivism to about 15% from historical levels near 85%. Its centres use social educators instead of security officers.

Hawai’i closed 80% of its youth detention centres and reduced youth crime by 86%. By 2022, the state had no girls incarcerated for the first time since 1961 under a public health model built on culturally grounded prevention and community support.

According to the delegation, none of those reforms looked easy at the start. New York, Spain and Hawai’i all faced political pressure and public concern about crime before shifting away from detention-heavy responses.

Justice Reform Initiative executive director Dr Mindy Sotiri said, “Western Australia is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on more detention infrastructure while the evidence and the people who have lived it in practice are telling us there is a better way.”

The Justice Reform Initiative brought the experts to Australia after their Adelaide conference appearance and parliamentary evidence sessions. It argues that governments across Australia often respond to crime fears with more detention despite evidence favouring early intervention, therapeutic support, community-based programmes and partnerships with First Nations communities.

Meanwhile, the group urged government agencies and the judiciary to work in step. It also backed stronger links between justice services and local community organisations to reduce incarceration and improve safety.

Justice Reform Initiative chair Robert Tickner AO said the three experts came from places that once faced many of the same problems now seen in Western Australia.