NSW extends youth bail crackdown, despite reduction in youth crime

The Chris Minns Labor government wants to extend its 2024 youth bail crackdown in regional New South Wales, saying on September 15 it will remove the sunset clause to a law targeting 14- to 17-year-olds who have been charged with a serious motor theft or break and enter crimes and are on conditional release.

NSW Labor announced its “crack down” on young people in 2024 as Victoria, the Northern Territory and Queensland were rolling out similar laws.

The Justice Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill (No 2) 2026, introduced on September 15, includes an amendment to section 22C of the Bail Act 2013 (NSW) which removes the October 1 sunset clause. It will be extended until April 4, 2028.

The Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT (ALS) criticised the move as discriminatory as it targets First Nations youth and “will only entrench them in a cycle of crime and disadvantage”.

After less than year in operation, the ALS confirmed that more than 80% of alleged youth offenders had been refused bail with 90% of them being Aboriginal.

However, a federal parliament inquiry, Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System, challenged the notion that there even is a youth crime crisis. “Evidence revealed that as the detention of children often leads to higher rates of re-offending, a punitive approach to youth justice undermines rather than contributes to community safety,” it too said as part of its recommendations.

Labor said that it had always wanted to extend the law until 2028. It said that it “requires a judge to have a high degree of confidence the accused will not offend while on bail”, prior to granting it.

Section 22C also stipulates that “to avoid doubt, the requirement under this section to establish that bail should be refused” is up to the prosecution.

A statutory review of the law, tabled the same day, recommended extending the section 22C law despite youth crime rates having stabilised in regional NSW. The report also noted that the commission of the specific crimes has dropped as well.

The review recommended extending the law to accompany “a voluntary diversion pilot in Tamworth”. The pilot is set to be rolled out on Gomeroi Country in early 2027, with $8.4 million budgeted over 2026–27.

This will comprise of a “wraparound support to children between the ages of eight and 13 with complex needs who are engaged in, or at risk of engaging in concerning or high-risk behaviour”.

A second pilot program is due to be announced shortly.

When the section 22C law was unveiled in early 2024, it was accompanied by a $26.2 million youth justice “early intervention and prevention program” for Moree, also on Gomeroi Country.

NSW Police has been testing drone surveillance policing in the same town and recently announced it was extending the six-month trial for another two years. Tamworth might be the next town to be subjected to police harassment from the sky.

The final report on Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System was released on September 18. The committee heard that while mainstream media outlets have pushed the youth crime “crisis” narrative, there has been a 5% decrease in crime over the previous year. This is in line with a general decrease in youth crime across Australia over the past 15 years.

The committee recommended that the Attorney General (AG) work with state and territory governments to establish national youth justice minimum standards.

It recommended that authorities collaborate with the AG on how the youth prison system should be reformed.

The committee suggested a minimum age of criminal responsibility of 14 years old, that detention or imprisonment of a child be a measure of last resort, and that the use of spit hoods, solitary confinement and the detention of youths in adult prisons are prohibited.

Further recommendations are: Access to health, education and other supports; systems that promote continued connection with community; culture while in detention and that youth justice officers receive adequate training.

The report recommends the OPCAT system, a UN-based preventive prison inspection regime that uphold human rights.

Australia moved to implement the OPCAT in the wake of 2016 Don Dale child prison abuse revelations. However, it then ran OPCAT inspectors out of the country.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly rejected independent Senator Lidia Thorpe’s suggestion that Labor establish minimum prison standards for children. He insists the federal government has no power to push states on law-and-order issues.

However, legal advice sought by National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (NATSILS) last year revealed that the external affairs power, contained in section 51(xxix) of the Australian

Constitution, empowers Canberra to intervene in state and territory matters.

Shariff Deen, acting CEO of the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) said: “There is clear evidence the premier’s legislation is having a discriminatory effect: 80 percent of children imprisoned under the laws he introduced in 2024 are Aboriginal.” He said the failed NSW youth justice policy means that “the vast majority of children in NSW jails have not had their day in court or been found guilty of a crime”. “Why does the premier think it’s okay for jails to be full of unsentenced Aboriginal kids?” he asked.

According to the June NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research figures, the child prison system contained 208 youth inmates. Of these, 107 were First Nations youths, meaning they make up 51% of the NSW child prisoner population.

Indigenous young people aged between the ages 10 and 17 account for only 8% of the NSW population.

Of those 107 Indigenous kids who were locked up midyear, 77 were on remand — which means they were yet to have been found guilty or were yet to be sentenced. This means that these youths may be released at the time a verdict is progressed or sentencing takes place.

The NSW Children’s Court found that 92% of child remandees are not sentenced to prison after having been in detention on remand.

It is well documented that if an individual does spend time in prison, they are more likely to return to it, regardless of whether they were ultimately convicted or sentenced to time.

“The premier knows that jailing children just increases the likelihood they will go on to re-offend,” Deen said. “It’s clear he is more concerned with perceived political point-scoring than with what actually works to make the community safer — which is investing in community services that address the root causes of crime.

“State and territory leaders are in an appalling race to the bottom, and this is yet another example in terms of the multi-jurisdictional process that continues. It’s time for the prime minister to step up and show national leadership.”

[Paul Gregoire writes for Sydney Criminal Layers, where this article was first published.]