Drop in number of Tasmanians in juvenile detention
Tasmania has seen a decline in the number of young people spending time in juvenile detention.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released a report showing a small but steady decline in the number of young people in sentenced detention across the country over the past four years.
The Institute's Tim Beard said in Tasmania, just nine young people were in detention on an average night, down from 27 four years ago.
"Some of the policies that are in training are actually working quite well by the looks of it, from these numbers," he said.
"So I guess the message would be to keep these things going and to keep an eye on the numbers and make sure the rates numbers continue to drop because there are still almost 1,000 young people in detention on an average night across the country, so that number's still relatively high."
Mr Beard said early support for children at risk was important.
"The earlier you have contact with the system, the worse the outcomes are likely to be in terms of having regular contact and that contact becoming more serious as time goes on," he said.
"There's also a lot of risk factors associated with being in detention such as having poor outcomes in education, in employment and more likely to be reliant on income support."
