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Queensland youth reoffending rate worst in nation

More than half of young offenders subject to sentence supervision in Queensland were back in contact with the criminal justice system within 12 months, new data shows.

The Productivity Commission numbers come as the state government pledges new laws designed to drive down youth crime will be a priority when parliament returns next month.

Close to 57% of Queenslanders aged 10 to 16 at the time of release returned to some form of sentence supervision within a year in 2019-20, the figures released today show.

The rate is the highest among all jurisdictions , but continued a downward trend over the previous two years that peaked at 65 per cent in 2017-18.

The figures also show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were vastly over represented in Queensland youth detention centres in 2021-22.

For 10 to 13 year olds, the rate was almost 42 children per 10,000, compared to 1.1 for non indigenous children.

In the 14 to 17-year-old age group, the figure was almost 267 per 10,000, compared to 14.2.

The rates are calculated from the number of young people on an average day against the estimated population as of the end of the year.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles today said youth detention was an opportunity to intervene in the cycle of reoffending and “help those young people turn their lives around”.

However, because of delays in the court system, Miles said many offenders were spending so much time on remand, they had already served their penalty by the time they were sentenced.

He said:

That’s one of the reasons we want to see sentences occur faster, so that our staff in those youth detention centres can deliver those programs. When those programs get completed, they are effective, they do help young people change their lives.”

Proposed changes to the system will make it more effective, he said.

– AAP