Inquiries into youth incarceration
The Guardian for Children and Young People and Office of the Chief Psychiatrist released their Joint Inspection of the Mental Health and Wellbeing of children and young people detained at the Adelaide Youth Training Centre, including a companion document From Those Who Know: mental health and wellbeing in youth detention that captures the direct voices of young people in incarceration. This Report, tabled in Parliament, along with other significant advocacy work across 2025 by the Society’s Criminal Law, Human Rights and Children and the Law Committees, informed a recent submission to the Law Council on the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Reference Committee inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system.
The Society has written to the Attorney General to suggest that the Government run an information campaign on the new knife laws, police shopping centre search powers, and recent legislative changes that affect children and young people.