MEDIA RELEASE: Just Reinvest NSW CEO Mr. Geoff Scott says Premier’s decision to extend youth bail laws will only ensure offending continues into adulthood. “What we need are more therapeutic responses and a thorough investigation into the root causes of crime and how this can be addressed at the source – the parents and the police – with more community-led and place-based responses,” said Mr Scott.

REDFERN, Sydney: Today Just Reinvest NSW rejected the NSW Premier’s assertions that new youth bail laws had been successful in making communities safer. “The Premier’s decision to extend the new bail laws for another three years is extremely disappointing and will only serve to further the incarceration of young Aboriginal people,” said Mr. Geoff Scott, CEO Just Reinvest NSW.  

According to recent data released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research the new youth bail laws have proven to lock up 22 per cent more young people, despite the crime rates remaining steady over the same period.

“By his own words Mr. Minns cannot claim that this extension of the bail laws will keep the community safer while at the same time saying they’re ‘investing in efforts to reduce youth crime and minimise young peoples’ long-term contact with the criminal justice system’. More incarceration does not reduce crime, rather evidence suggests that it perpetuates a cycle of crime and incarceration,” said Mr. Scott

Last year another BOCSAR study on detention of 10–13-year-olds in 2023, revealed 60% of children experiencing detention are Aboriginal, and 82% of them had been identified in a child protection report as at risk of significant harm (ROSH). 60% had received 10 or more ROSH reports. One in four of them had been in Out of Home Care.

“What we need are more therapeutic responses and a thorough investigation into the root causes of crime and how this can be addressed at the source – the parents and the police – with more community-led and place-based responses,” said Mr Geoff Scott.

In NSW, youth incarceration costs $2,814 per child, per day, according to 2023-24 Productivity Commission data, with the state spending over $223 million to imprison children and young people.

For more information contact James Nichols, JR NSW, M: 0499 686 157 E: james@justreinvest.org.au

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Just Reinvest NSW supports Aboriginal communities to explore and establish justice reinvestment initiatives and advocates for systemic changes that build safer and stronger communities.

Our goal is to reduce Aboriginal incarceration in NSW. We work alongside Aboriginal communities to support place-based, community-led and data driven approaches to inform local solutions, such as devising local ‘justice circuit-breakers’.