Youth justice in Australia 2024–25

In this report:

• a ‘reception’ is when a young person enters detention (either sentenced or unsentenced), having not been detained immediately before
• a ‘release’ is when a young person leaves detention and is not detained immediately afterwards. 

That is, to account for young people transported to court who return to detention after their court hearing, and young people transferred between detention centres, the start of a detention period is considered a reception only when it starts at least 2 full days after the end of the previous detention period. 

Similarly, the end of a detention period is considered a release only when it ends at least 2 full days before the start of the next detention period. A change in legal status – for example, from unsentenced to sentenced detention within 2 days – is not counted as a new reception.

A release from detention comprises young people being released either to community-based supervision (such as on parole or supervised release) or out of youth justice supervision altogether (on sentence completion). 

There may be a small number of young people who are counted as having a reception or release if their travel time is longer than 2 full days when travelling to and from remote locations.

Receptions

In 2024–25, 4,395 young people experienced 8,848 receptions into detention (Tables S103a and S103b). Among all young people in detention in 2024–25, 93% were received at some point during the year, with an average of about 2 receptions per young person, reflecting the short durations of detention periods. The remaining others were received in a previous year (Table S103b). 

Almost half (46%) of young people who were received into detention during the year were received more than once (Table S105a). 

Most receptions (98%) were for young people entering unsentenced detention, which consists of police-referred pre-court detention and remand (Table S103a). 

Just over two-thirds of receptions (70%) were for remand, almost one-third (28%) were for police‑referred pre-court detention and 1.6% were for sentenced detention (Table S103a).

About 1 in 6 (17%) young people in sentenced detention during 2024–25 were received during the year (Table S103a and S108b). This indicates that the others were either received into sentenced detention in a previous year, or were in unsentenced detention immediately before they began their period of sentenced detention (and their sentenced period started within 2 days of their non-sentenced period ending).

Releases

In 2024–25, 4,477 young people experienced 8,811 releases from detention. The vast majority of young people (94%) who were detained during the year were released at least once, with an average of 2 releases per young person (Tables S72b, S104a and S104b). Similar to receptions, 91% of releases were from unsentenced detention. About 3 in 4 releases (73%) were from remand and 17% were from police-referred pre-court detention (Table S104a). The proportion of releases from sentenced detention (8.0%) was higher than the proportion of receptions to sentenced detention (1.6%) (Tables S103a and S104a).

In 2024–25, the numbers of receptions and releases were closely aligned each month, despite some fluctuations (Figure 6.6). The highest number of receptions (831) occurred in January 2025, and the highest number for releases (782) occurred in December 2024 (Tables S107a and S107b).