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Report on Government Services 2021

PART F, SECTION 17: RELEASED ON 20 JANUARY 2021

17 Youth justice services

Impact of COVID-19 on data for the Youth justice services section

COVID-19 may affect data in this Report in a number of ways. This includes in respect of actual performance (that is, the impact of COVID-19 on service delivery in 2020, which is reflected in the data results), and the collection and processing of data (that is, the ability of data providers to undertake data collection and process results for inclusion in the Report).

For the Youth justice services section, there are no significant changes to the data as a result of COVID-19.

This section reports on the performance of governments in providing youth justice services.

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  • Key Facts
  • Indicator Framework
  • Indicator Results
  • Indigenous Data

The average daily number of young people aged 10–17 years under youth justice supervision in Australia during  2019-20 was 4266. The majority of these young people were supervised on community-based orders (which include supervised bail, probation and parole) — nationally, on an average day in 2019-20, 85.3 per cent of young people aged 10–17 years who were supervised by youth justice services were in the community, with the remainder in detention.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people were significantly overrepresented in youth justice detention. Nationally during 2019-20, the average daily detention rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 10–17 years was 24.8 per 10 000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young person, 18 times the rate for non-Indigenous young people (1.4 per 10 000).

Total recurrent expenditure on detention-based supervision, community-based supervision and group conferencing was $1.0 billion across Australia in 2019-20, with detention-based supervision accounting for the majority of this expenditure (58.1 per cent, or $584.5 million).

Youth justice services aim to promote community safety, rehabilitate and reintegrate young people who offend, and contribute to a reduction in youth re offending.

To achieve these aims, governments seek to provide youth justice services that:

  • divert young people who offend from further progression into the youth justice system to alternative services
  • assist young people who offend to address their offending behaviour
  • provide a safe and secure environment for the protection of young people during their time in detention
  • assist young people who are in youth justice detention to return to the community
  • promote the importance of the families and communities of young people who offend, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, in the provision of services and programs
  • support young people to understand the impact of their offending on others, including victims and the wider community
  • recognise the rights of victims.

Governments aim for youth justice services to meet these objectives in an equitable and efficient manner.

The performance indicator framework provides information on equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and distinguishes the outputs and outcomes of youth justice services. The performance indicator framework shows which data are complete and comparable in this Report.

Indicator framework

An overview of the Youth justice services performance indicator results are presented. Information to assist the interpretation of these data can be found in the indicator interpretation boxes in the Youth justice services section and data tables.

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Effectiveness — Appropriateness indicators

Group conferencing agreements

Proportion of group conferences resulting in an agreement, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 98.7 100.0 98.1 88.2 85.7 94.3 96.2 100.0 93.2
Source: Data table 17A.11

Case plans prepared

Proportion of case plans prepared or reviewed within 6 weeks of commencing a sentenced order, 2019‑20 (per cent)

Most recent data for these measures are not comparable or complete
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Detention order 99.5 46.0 88.9 100.0 66.7 100.0 100.0 na 92.1
Community-based order 95.0 58.1 79.0 na 78.7 47.7 80.6 na 81.7
Source: Data table 17A.12

Education and training attendance

Proportion of young people in detention of compulsory school age attending an education course, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable or complete
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 100.0 100.0 100.0 99.1 100.0 100.0 100.0 na 99.8
Source: Data table 17A.13

Effectiveness — Quality indicators

Deaths in custody

Number of young people who died in custody, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
no.
Source: Data table 17A.14

Assaults in custody

Rate of young people injured as a result of a serious assault per 10 000 custody nights, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable or complete
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Rate 0.7 0.9 0.3 0.8 1.6 na ..

Source: Data table 17A.15

Rate of young people injured as a result of an assault per 10 000 custody nights, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Rate 12.3 13.9 5.2 13.3 19.8 49.6 7.1 3.4 ..

Source: Data table 17A.16

Self‑harm and attempted suicide in custody

Rate of incidents of self‑harm or attempted suicide in custody requiring hospitalisation per 10 000 custody nights, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable or complete
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Rate 2.0 0.3 0.3 na 4.0 15.8 ..

Source: Data table 17A.18

Rate of incidents of self‑harm or attempted suicide in custody that did not require hospitalisation per 10 000 custody nights, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable or complete
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Rate 6.1 5.6 1.4 na 5.5 46.1 7.1 70.1 ..
Source: Data table 17A.18

Efficiency — Inputs per output unit indicators

Cost per young person subject to community-based supervision

Average cost per day per young person subject to community-based supervision, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
$ 169.90 295.36 271.26 92.13 96.59 162.31 221.59 509.16 222.87
Source: Data table 17A.19

Cost per young person subject to detention-based supervision

Average cost per day per young person subject to detention-based supervision, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
  1 597.97 2 449.85 1 640.51 821.49 3 121.25 2 744.44 3 464.06 4 600.81 1 901.22
Source: Data table 17A.20

Cost per group conference

Cost per concluded group conference, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this indicator are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
$ 932.61 13 371.51 4 031.53 9 048.79 1 726.02 724.50 17 173.08 40 087.65 6 049.24
Source: Data table 17A.21

Outcome indicators

Escapes

Rates of escapes from detention and escorted movement, 2019‑20

Most recent data for these measures are comparable, subject to caveats, and complete for escapes from youth detention centres but not complete for escapes from escorted movements
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Detention (rate per 10 000 custody nights) 1.1
Escorted movements (rate per 10 000 escorted movements) 4.9 na 222.2 44.4 13.9

Source: Data table 17A.22

Absconds from unescorted leave

Rate of absconds per 1000 periods of unescorted leave, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
Rate .. ..
Source: Data table 17A.23

Completion of community-based orders

Proportion of community‑based orders successfully completed, 2019‑20

Most recent data for this measure are comparable and complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 84.4 91.9 84.9 69.2 71.7 79.5 45.8 72.8 82.8
Source: Data table 17A.24

Returns to sentenced youth justice supervision

Proportion of young people released from sentenced youth justice supervision in 2017-18, who returned to sentenced youth justice supervision within 12 months

Most recent data for this measure are not comparable but are complete, subject to caveats
 NSWVicQldWASATasACTNTAust
% 52.9 60.1 65.5 55.8 48.5 58.3 39.3 62.6 58.7
Source: Data table 17A.25

Notes

These data and caveats for these data are available in section 17 and relevant data tables.

na Not available. .. Not applicable. – Nil or rounded to zero.

Performance indicator data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this section are available in the data tables listed below. Contextual data and further supporting information can be found in the section.

Youth justice services data disaggregated for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Table number Table title
Table 17A.11 Proportion of group conferences resulting in an agreement, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.12 Case plans prepared/reviewed within 6 weeks of commencing a sentenced order, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.13 Proportion of young people in detention attending education and training, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.14 Deaths in custody, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.15 Serious assaults in custody, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.16 Assaults in custody, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.18 Self-harm and attempted suicide in custody, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.22 Escapes from detention and escorted movement, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.23 Absconds from unescorted leave, by Indigenous status
Table 17A.24 Completion of community-based orders, by Indigenous status