Youth Justice NSW’s overarching goal is to ‘break the cycle of reoffending’ for young people. In recent years there has been a reduction in youth crime and a decline in the number of young offenders in custody. However, despite this positive trend, the proportion of young people admitted to a youth justice centre that are reoffenders has not materially changed and is relatively stable at approximately 75%.

Johnstaff’s provided strategic policy advice to support the delivery of specialised behavioural, therapeutic and rehabilitative interventions through a new, contemporary service model and system logic that:

• determines where young people are placed and why
• takes a ‘whole of childhood’ approach to care and intervention
• manages the full risk spectrum from high to low risk
• provides a basis for Youth Justice NSW to develop a forward-lookingAsset Strategy
• increases the focus on community care, and
• provides a greater focus on the needs young people.

The new system logic was tested and evaluated using seven years of historical data to formulate scenario simulations for comparison and analysis, which formed the basis for a detailed set of forward-looking recommendations to guide Youth Justice NSW to deliver a once in a generation reform to the custodial system.

The proposed reform is significant: it will shift youth custodial care away from an increasingly outdated punitive ‘command and control’ approach to a best-practice approach that uses the time the young person is in the State’s care to provide specialised interventions to reduce the probability of reoffending by:

• fostering links to community and family
• supporting consistency of base line services
• taking a balanced approach to risk management, and
• addressing the complex needs of young people.