Jailing children fails on every measure. So why do we persist?

September 27, 2026 — 4:30pm

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In these cash-strapped times, I’m often asked how governments can save money. One area Australian leaders have so far largely failed to consider is our prisons – the money we spend to build and staff them for the vast numbers of people who enter those gates and usually end up making at least one return visit.

Australian taxpayers spend more than $7.3 billion a year on adult incarceration and over $1.1 billion a year on locking up children. The cost of keeping one adult in prison for a year is almost $120,000. Spending on youth detention has more than doubled over the past decade and now costs an average of $1.3 million per year for each child.

Yet despite these massive outlays (imagine how we could support a child in the community and change their trajectory with $1.3 million), the evidence overwhelmingly shows that jailing is failing. Imprisonment makes further offending more likely (not less) and entrenches disadvantage that inevitably means greater spending down the line on unemployment support, health and housing.

From a fiscal perspective, it’s almost nonsensical. Policymakers around the world and from all sides of politics have recognised this. In the........

© The Sydney Morning Herald