CMY makes submission to Inquiry into Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System
CMY was pleased to make a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System this month. In our submission, CMY shared our increasing concerns that not enough is being done to address the overrepresentation of disadvantaged and marginalised young people, including multicultural young people, in our justice system. Despite investment in programs, and multiple reviews, inquiries and reforms to youth justice in recent years, we argue, there remains room for improvement.
Our letter highlights the need to tackle the root causes of youth incarceration early, rather than treating the symptoms, including through increasing the capacity of services and the justice system to support multicultural young people. Our work within programs such as Target Zero, Youth Justice Lived Experience Mentoring Program, and Reconnect (DET) among others, shows that early intervention works to divert young people away from coming into contact with the justice system.
CMY have called on the Australian Parliament to draw from the evidence and learnings from previous inquiries, and to act swiftly to respond to the needs of vulnerable young people within the youth justice system.
CMY also supported Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP) and MYAN Australia calls for the Australian Government to:
- implement targeted measures to address over-representation of multicultural youth in youth justice, including the addition of targeted measures within any national youth justice and wellbeing standards (SJ4YP), and the development of a National Youth Justice Standards Framework with a focus on over-represented multicultural young people (MYAN);
- raise the national age of criminal and civil responsibility to 14 years, with no exceptions;
- raise the national minimum age of detention to at least 16 years, in line with UN recommendations;
- ensure the jurisdiction of youth justice is recognised nationally and up to 25 years of age; and,
- consider previous recommendations of Save the Children Australia, and supported by MYAN, to strengthen child rights in Australia by “ratify(ing) the 3rd optional protocol to the CRC which allows children and young people to bring complaints directly to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child” and “withdraw Australia’s reservation to Article 37(c) of the CRC which requires that children and young people not be detained with adults.”
Read CMY’s full letter here (Submission No. 35).
This inquiry comes off the back of the recent Victorian Youth Justice Bill 2024, and we emphasise our ongoing commitment to advocate for the needs of multicultural young people and their families to ensure that the youth justice system is innovative, youth-informed and evidence led. You can read more about our recent advocacy regarding the Victorian Youth Justice Bill here.