Youth contact with the criminal justice system and housing precarity tend to go hand in hand. A young person who has spent time in detention is more likely to face housing precarity, while a young person facing housing precarity is more likely to come into contact with the justice system.  

This relationship has been clear for many years, as highlighted continuously by our Yfoundations colleagues. This month, Shelter NSW joined the youth homelessness peak body to contribute to evidence-based approaches to reducing the number of children in contact with the criminal justice system in New South Wales explored by the Select Committee into Youth Justice. Together, we can advocate for better systems and better outcomes for children and young people caught up in the NSW justice system. 

Under section 28 of the Bail Act (NSW) 2013, children can be detained on remand – i.e. without conviction – should a magistrate be concerned that the child’s living situation is inadequate to fulfil bail conditions. With the criminal age of responsibility at 10 years old in NSW, this legislation facilitates the use of detention facilities as an “accommodation solution” for children experiencing housing precarity. For these children, whether local specialist homelessness services are resourced and able to meet demand could mean the difference between incarceration or accommodation. 

This is a serious system failure. Detention facilities are becoming de facto crisis accommodation, significantly impacting children already facing disadvantage, often under many forms. Our joint submission with YFoundations focuses on how we can reduce occurrences of this seriously concerning situation.  

The Bail and Accommodation Support Service (BASS) program exists to provide a safety net so that children may be released on bail to a participating specialist homelessness service (SHS) provider; allowing adequate bail conditions to be imposed on young people charged with offenses – without resorting to detention. Unfortunately, this is a service under serious capacity constraints. In 2021, less than 10% of children referred to the service were able to secure accommodation. The other 90% remained held on remand.  

With BASS beds operated by already stretched SHS providers, children are competing with members of the public for temporary accommodation and support. To ensure that BASS placements are always available to the children who need them, Shelter NSW and YFoundations call for a significant expansion of this program, so that contracted providers have permanent and exclusive BASS places, with consideration given to parts of the state with the greatest need. 

For the program to be successful, it must also be culturally sensitive to the needs of First Nations children, accessible and easy to use, and its use should be mandated, with associated mandatory training for police to use the service efficiently. Furthermore, the relationship between Youth Justice workers and SHS providers needs to be reinstated so that the responsibility for caring for these children does not fall solely on service providers.  

We should be working to ensure that children facing disadvantage, particularly housing insecurity, are supported rather than punished. There is no evidence to suggest that a child as young as ten is better served by detention than support. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that criminal justice responses to problematic child behaviour only entrenches disadvantage and traps children and young people in a cycle of offending and unstable living situations, sometimes leading to institutionalisation.  

The fact that successive state governments of both political persuasions have refused to heed the calls to raise the criminal age of responsibility should be the cause of much shame. Unfortunately, addressing the root causes of youth crime through early intervention and targeted support do not have the same ability to grab headlines like ‘tough on crime’ approaches. The Crisafulli government’s ‘adult time for adult crime’ policy north of the Tweed is a clear demonstration of that.   

Children belong in school yards, not prison cells. Along with our colleagues across the community services sector from the ‘Raise the Age’ campaign, Shelter NSW calls on NSW government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, in line with UN recommendations, and to adequately fund supported housing models for young people across the state, meeting immediate, short-term and longer-term needs. The expansion of this accommodation should be done in partnership with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and First Nations stakeholders. 

It’s high time we let kids be kids. It’s time to raise the age. 

You can read the YFoundations and Shelter NSW submission here