From Care to Custody: Young Women in Out-of-Home Care in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Children in out-of-home care (those children removed from their homes and placed in state care by an order of the Children's Court) are vastly over-represented in the New South Wales juvenile justice system. The Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in New South Wales (Wood 2008) found that 28 percent of males and 39 percent of females in detention had a history of out-of-home care (Wood 2008:556). The much anticipated Strategic Review of the New South Wales Juvenile Justice System, released in April 2010, noted these figures and stressed that addressing the risk factors of out-of-home care and its links to the juvenile justice system was a 'sound policy platform' (Noetic Solutions 2010:88). This is a sadly familiar refrain. While the terminology may have changed (e.g. the term 'state ward' is no longer used to refer to this group), little progress has been made to reduce the number of children in care appearing before NSW courts and filling NSW's juvenile detention centres. In 1992, the NSW Parliament's inquiry into juvenile justice heard evidence that female state wards were 'forty times more likely to be detained in custody than other girls' and were 'frequently unable to meet the bail conditions regarding an approved place of residence, by default remain(ing) in detention' (Standing Committee on Social Issues 1992:141). Appalled, the Committee noted that 'state wards are a particularly vulnerable group to involvement in the Juvenile Justice System' and urged the then Department of Community Services (DoCS)1 and the Office of Juvenile Justice 'to continue to monitor the numbers of state wards in the Juvenile Justice System with a view to developing strategies as to how best such young people might be diverted from contact with that system' (Standing Committee on Social Issues 1992:54).