It’s easy to understand why people are furious at the levels of youth crime in our community. It is a clear breach of trust. But automatic imprisonment championed by Labor and Liberals is a blunt instrument and is not the answer.

Judges already have the power to jail those who pose a threat but what we need is smarter risk management in the first place, better supervision and real consequences – not blanket rules that sound tough but make us less safe.

South Australians are rightly concerned about youth crime. Victims deserve protection, communities deserve safety and offenders must be held accountable.

But real safety doesn’t come from the slogans offered to us by politicians or rigid rules from both parties on the issue of automatic incarceration of youth who breach bail. Automatic detention rules and adult style punishment for children have been shown internationally to increase offending.

Real safety comes from what works. What we need, and have long needed, is a tough evidence based youth justice model that REDUCES re-offending and protects the community.

There are however international models that do reduce youth crime by focusing on accountability, early intervention and community safety – none of which anyone in government or opposition have ever turned their mind to.

Our problem in South Australia is that –

• Children are drawn into the criminal system too early
• Rigid “one-size-fits-all” proposals remove judicial judgement
• Detention too often becomes a default, not a Court resort
• Re-offending rates continue to remain unacceptably high.

It is clear that punishment without rehabilitation creates more victims and does nothing for the safety of our community.

International evidence overwhelmingly shows that countries with the lowest youth offending rates – including Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland – all share common principles, namely –

• Early intervention instead of early criminalisation
• Judicial discretion instead of automatic rules
• Youth-specific sanctions instead of prison-first responses
• Custody used sparingly and intelligently

These systems don’t excuse crime. They stop it from happening again.

Being tough on youth crime means stopping the NEXT offence. You do that by building a youth sanctions policy that actually changes behaviour, delivers fast consequences, structured supervision and detention only when genuinely necessary.

By sanctions I mean a four-pronged strategy. A structured youth framework that blends welfare and consequences.

THE REAL CHANGE SA YOUTH JUSTICE PLAN

1. Put Community Safety First

Violent or high-risk offenders must be detained.
Full stop.
But justice must also be accurate, not automatic.

2. Preserve Judicial Discretion

Judges and magistrates must retain the power to assess:

• Real risk to the community
• The nature of the breach
• The offender’s history and circumstances

Automatic imprisonment rules sound tough – but they jail the wrong people and miss the dangerous ones.

3. Introduce a South Australian Youth Sanction

• A structured court-ordered program including:
• Police cautions or warnings
• Family conferencing
• Apologies or restitution
• Referral to counselling, education or drug/alcohol programs ● Strict supervision
• Compulsory education or training
• Treatment for addiction and trauma
• Intensive Youth Supervision Orders
• Attendance at behaviour-change programs
• Immediate consequences for non-compliance

This delivers accountability without manufacturing career criminals.

For repeat or more serious offending:

• Intensive Youth Supervision Orders
• Electronic monitoring (limited and targeted)
• Mandatory daily reporting
• Structured case management and
• Attendance at behaviour- change programs

4. Use Custody Properly

Detention should be:

• Reserved for serious or violent cases
• Youth appropriate, not adult-style punishment
• Focused on rehabilitation and reintegration from day one

5. Intervene Early

Children under 14 should be dealt with primarily through welfare-led responses, with court oversight – preventing escalation into lifelong offending.
This strategy will and has produced:

• Fewer repeat offenders
• Fewer victims
• Safer streets and homes
• Lower long-term costs to the community

Our principle is to be tough where it matters and be smart where it counts, because real justice reduces crime – it doesn’t recycle it. Consequences are essential. Crime must be met with accountability. But tough talk isn’t the same as real results.

Simply locking young people up ends up creating more criminals – and more victims. The countries that focus on turning young offenders away from crime have far lower re-offending rates.
We are not soft on crime – we are serious about stopping it. Any-one can shout slogans (as we’ve seen from both of the major Parties) but I want to make our community safer, and that means doing what works, not what just sounds tough.

Some say “do the crime, do the time”. I understand that sentiment. I’ve spent almost 50 years in courtrooms – prosecuting, defending and sentencing. I know the damage that crime does, particularly to women and vulnerable people.
There must be consequences and there will be consequences under any system I support. But after my time with the criminal law, I’ve learned something simple:
Punishment alone doesn’t protect the community – rehabilitation does.

If a young offender goes into detention and comes out more dangerous, have we achieved justice? Or have we guaranteed more victims?

The countries that lead the world in reducing youth crime hold offenders responsible. They don’t excuse behaviour. But they also make sure that kids don’t come back. Their re-offending rates are dramatically lower than ours. That’s not softness – that’s success.
My goal is not to sound tough – it’s to keep South Australians safe. That means consequences, yes – but consequences that change behaviour, break cycles of violence and protect the next victim before a crime ever occurs.

Real justice isn’t vengeance.
Real protection isn’t bravado.
Real strength is doing what works.
Real weakness is pretending that Labor and Liberal slogans will keep us safe. For if a system produces repeat offenders, it’s not tough – it’s broken.