Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Policy Asks

A More Compassionate Approach to Youth Justice

We seek a nation where all children can flourish free from harm and fear, surrounded by communities that nurture healing and growth - where the youth justice system champions dignity, culture, and hope for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.

Australia's youth justice system is at a crossroads. Despite growing evidence about what keeps children and communities safe, governments continue to rely heavily on policing, detention and crisis responses, while investment in prevention and early support remains fragmented and inconsistent. Too many children enter the justice system after years of unmet need, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to bear the greatest burden of this failure.

The pathways that lead children into the youth justice system are often forged early in life. Poverty, housing insecurity, racism, intergenerational trauma, family stress, school exclusion, and limited access to culturally safe support create a web of disadvantage that can overwhelm families and narrow opportunities for children long before they encounter the justice system. These injustices are felt most acutely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities, who continue to experience the cumulative impacts of generations of discriminatory policies, systemic racism, and chronic underinvestment in community-led supports. 

Australian governments have committed, through the Closing the Gap Agreement, to reducing the disparities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. However, the latest evidence shows Australia is moving further away from achieving its youth justice targets.

2026 data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that, on an average day in 2024–25, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10–17 were approximately:

• 20 times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be under youth justice supervision

• 19 times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be under community-based supervision

• 23 times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be in detention.

These figures reveal a profound failure to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and to meet Australia's commitments under Closing the Gap.

And these statistics cannot be seen in isolation; they intersect deeply with other Closing the Gap targets that are also off track. The over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care increases their risk of later justice involvement, while gaps in access to quality early childhood education and health services limit opportunities for healing and thriving from the start. Educational disengagement, often linked to intergenerational trauma, poverty, and systemic racism, further compounds vulnerability. 

Vision 

We all want communities where children can flourish and people can live in safety. These goals go hand in hand. Evidence consistently shows that investing in children, strengthening families and supporting communities before crises emerge not only helps children thrive - it also builds safer communities by reducing the factors that lead to offending in the first place. Yet governments continue to invest heavily in policing, detention and punitive responses, while funding for prevention and early support remains fragmented, inconsistent and insufficient.

The evidence is increasingly clear: incarceration does not address the underlying causes of harm or create safer communities over the long term. Instead, lasting safety is built by strengthening families, investing in communities, and addressing the circumstances that place children at risk.

As Christians committed to justice, dignity, and the flourishing of communities, we believe another path is possible.

For Christians, justice is about right relationship - with God, with one another and with creation. Scripture consistently calls us to protect children, defend those who are oppressed and create communities where people can live in safety, dignity and hope. The biblical vision of justice includes whether people are able to live in safety, dignity, and belonging, and whether communities are shaped by restoration, mercy, accountability, and care for those who are most vulnerable. 

A just society does not wait until children are in crisis before responding. It creates the conditions for children, families and communities to flourish by surrounding people with relationships, support, dignity and belonging before harm escalates. Reducing youth incarceration therefore requires shifting investment further upstream - strengthening families, investing in communities and ensuring no child is failed or even abandoned by the systems meant to support them.

We believe governments must listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, whose wisdom and leadership continue to show what healing, prevention, and community-led care can look like. Governments must invest in what is already working and build a youth justice system centred on prevention, healing and restoration rather than punishment - one that gives every child the opportunity to flourish and every community the opportunity to thrive.

Youth Justice in Australia - a snapshot of a harmful and deeply unequal system and calls for change

Recent reforms across Australia demonstrate how fragmented the youth justice system has become. Rather than moving consistently towards evidence-based approaches, many jurisdictions have introduced increasingly punitive laws that risk causing further harm to children while doing little to improve community safety.

Some examples of these changes: 

• NSW: Recent changes to bail laws have made it more difficult for young people - particularly repeat offenders - to be granted bail. These stricter laws have disproportionately affected Aboriginal children, leading to an increase in their detention, often for offences that previously may not have resulted in custody. This has significantly contributed to the growing overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in NSW detention centres.

• NT: Northern Territory Government reversed earlier reforms by lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 12 back to 10 years. It has also introduced further punitive measures, including expanded police detention powers, while reintroducing practices such as spit hoods. Draft legislation allowing police to detain, question and charge children for up to 48 hours without a parent or guardian present has attracted widespread criticism from legal and human rights organisations.

• QLD: Queensland has continued to expand its "Adult Crime, Adult Time" agenda, increasing the number of offences for which children can receive adult sentences, making electronic monitoring a permanent bail option, and proposing mandatory detention for children who commit certain offences while on bail. The continued use of adult watch houses and growing reliance on detention have raised significant concerns about children's rights and the effectiveness of these measures in improving community safety

• VIC: The Victorian Government has introduced what it describes as the state's toughest bail laws, removing the longstanding principle that remand should be a last resort for children. It has also abandoned its previous commitment to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14, retaining it at 12 despite recommendations from legal, health and Aboriginal organisations.

Calls for Reform

Calls for reform are coming from across the legal, health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights and community sectors. In recent years, the Australian Human Rights Commission's Help Way Earlier! Report and Supplementary Report, the Senate Inquiries into Australia's Youth Justice and Incarceration System, the Standing Council of Attorneys-General's review of youth justice, and countless submissions from Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, legal experts, researchers and peak bodies including the Australian Medical Association, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS), and the National Peak Body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children - SNAICC, have all reached remarkably similar conclusions. They point to the need for greater investment in prevention and early intervention, stronger community-led responses, nationally consistent protections for children, and a shift away from an overreliance on detention.

In May 2026, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern over the persistent overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Australia’s criminal justice system. This official statement, triggered by the Committee’s Early Warning and Action Procedure, followed a letter sent to Australia the previous year - highlighting the same concerns. 

They noted that Indigenous children and communities continue to face racial discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, including education, healthcare, social security and housing. The Committee called upon Australia “to intensify and accelerate its efforts to eliminate racial discrimination against Indigenous children, including its institutional and systemic dimensions, in the administration of criminal justice and to address the persistent overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the criminal justice system.”

→ Why are we talking to the Australian Government?

Although youth justice is primarily administered by states and territories, the Australian Government has an important leadership role to play. It is responsible for ensuring Australia meets its international human rights obligations, leads the Closing the Gap partnership, negotiates national agreements with states and territories, funds many of the services that support children and families before they enter the justice system, and can use national leadership to drive consistent reform across jurisdictions.

The Commonwealth also has a unique convening role. It can bring together governments, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, researchers, legal experts and community organisations to develop nationally consistent, evidence-based approaches that improve outcomes for children regardless of where they live.

Impacts of youth incarceration

Poor Mental Health Outcomes:

• Incarcerating children during the crucial years of 10-17 affects their development. It increases their risk of depression, suicide and self-harm, leads to poor emotional wellbeing, and contributes to worse mental health in adulthood. 

• Many of the young people entering youth detention in Australia are doing so with pre-existing mental health issues or neurocognitive impairments. The experiences of isolation, boredom and victimisation have been shown to exacerbate these conditions.

“I've seen a lot of deaths in custody and most of them could have been prevented, I believe, by proper procedures put in place that would've made that child grow up feeling ‘I am who I am, I have a family and they are important to me.” - Rev Canon Auntie Di Langham (Auntie Di is a proud Boandik woman and an Anglican Reverend on Awabakal country. Auntie Di has worked as a prison chaplain in Corrective Services NSW for more than 20 years, including nearly a decade spent working in children’s prisons.)

Disconnection from Community:

• Removing a child from their family, carer, kin or community causes trauma. For First Nations children, this trauma is exacerbated by the fact that they are also being disconnected from their culture and Country.

• Connection to their community and culture is critical for children to foster their health and social wellbeing and to develop a sense of identity. In this way, culture can often be a protective factor for First Nations children who may be vulnerable to entering the criminal justice system. Research suggests that services that are culturally appropriate and safe, and that respect the self-determination of First Nations Peoples are the most effective at reducing offending.

“[when an Aboriginal child is cut off from community] we end up with major mental health problems. You do, because the child frets. They fret for their parents, fret for their siblings, fret for being kept away, especially at 10 years of age…When they fret damage is done and it usually doesn't get undone. We end up with youth suicide at 16 and 17 years of age because they have a whole mental health issue that has happened to them. They've already been traumatised just by being Aboriginal in the community, let alone getting to a jail and then being traumatised there. That's layers of trauma.” – Rev Canon Auntie Di Langham

“As an Aboriginal Forensic Mental Health Clinician I have seen first hand the devastating impacts of incarceration - not only in the lives of the people incarcerated but in the collective negative social, emotional, health and wellbeing of our communities. When we place our children in justice settings, we strip them of their hope and disconnect them from the resemblance of a different future than what they have seen around them.” - Cameron Balcombe (Cameron is a proud Olkola and Djabuguy Catholic man, he works as a Mental Health clinician in the forensic mental health system and is studying a Masters of Social Work at RMIT University. He is a supporter of the Common Grace Movement).

Incarceration fosters Recidivism:

• Contrary to popular political and media narratives, the incarceration of children does not lead to heightened community safety. Instead, evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that incarceration is criminogenic, and that the earlier you incarcerate a child, the more likely they are to re-enter the justice system in the future; Around 85% of children sentenced to detention return to custody within 12 months

• The Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council have found that ‘the younger children were at their first sentence, the more likely they were to reoffend generally, reoffend violently, continue offending into the adult criminal jurisdiction, and be sentenced to an adult sentence of imprisonment before their 22nd birthday. 

“I found in jail that most of the young people that came through to the big house had done time in juvie. So, from 10 years of age, they had started their incarceration and had continued on until they'd become virtually institutionalised. I had one guy that was 57, he’d been in since he was five in the boys home…From there that was the beginning of his life of crime and he continued on because some of them get so used to the whole system that it becomes the norm…. It’s very difficult to change that mindset as well.” – Rev Canon Auntie Di Langham

“If community safety is our priority, let’s make sure that the safety of our precious children is part of that. When the most vulnerable members of our society are cared for, then the rest of our community will benefit.” - Bianca Manning (Bianca is a Gomeroi woman, social worker and Common Grace’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Coordinator currently on sabbatical). 

The Costs of Incarceration:

Every dollar spent incarcerating a child is a dollar not invested in the early support that could have prevented them from entering the justice system in the first place. The scale of Australia's investment in detention reflects how heavily our youth justice systems continue to prioritise crisis responses over prevention.

• Recent data from the Productivity Commission shows it costs more than $2,827 per day - or around $1.03 million each year - to detain a single child. In 2022–23, governments across Australia spent almost $855 million on youth detention.

• Imagine the impact if even a fraction of these resources were redirected towards strengthening families, expanding Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, improving access to mental health and disability supports, and investing in community-led prevention. Australia must shift from a system that spends vast sums responding to crisis towards one that invests earlier, supports children to thrive, and reduces the need for detention in the first place.

Policy pillars

Youth justice reform must do three things: 

1. Ensure children, families and communities receive the support they need early, so children are less likely to come into contact with the justice system.

2. When children do enter the youth justice system, provide timely access to well-funded, evidence-based, restorative and rehabilitative responses that work alongside children, their families and their communities.

3. Ensure every child is treated with dignity and protected by nationally consistent standards that uphold Australia's human rights obligations, regardless of where they live.

Policy Asks

1.  Invest in "Help Way Earlier" – Scale Proven Australian Prevention and ACCO-Led Early Support

Australia already has a growing body of evidence demonstrating that community-led and Australian based primary prevention initiatives - including ACCO child and family services, Pathways to Prevention and Communities that Care - can improve children’s wellbeing and reduce the likelihood of entering the youth justice system. A next step is to scale these proven approaches . 

The Australian Government has already taken important steps by investing in justice reinvestment and place-based approaches through the Justice Reinvestment Network and PLACE. We can build on this momentum by expanding Aboriginal Community Controlled child and family services and investing in evidence-based, community-led approaches that strengthen families and address the drivers of youth justice involvement. Alongside this investment, governments should support robust evaluation so successful local initiatives can be strengthened, shared, and scaled.

The Australian Government should significantly increase investment in evidence-based prevention by:

• expanding Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO)-led child and family services

• scaling proven Australian prevention initiatives, including place-based and community-led models such as Pathways to Prevention and Communities That Care

• supporting communities to design and lead locally appropriate prevention initiatives through approaches such as PLACE and justice reinvestment

• improving access to culturally safe mental health, disability and family supports

• investing in rigorous evaluation, implementation and knowledge translation so successful initiatives can be expanded nationally.

We support SNAICC's call for an $801 million investment over four years to expand Aboriginal Community Controlled child and family services nationwide. SNAICC is the national peak body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

While significant, this investment is less than Australia currently spends on youth detention in a single year. Redirecting even a portion of our current spending towards prevention would strengthen families, reduce children's contact with child protection and youth justice systems, and create safer communities.

Why this matters

Australia already has strong evidence about what works - now we need to scale it. 

Despite their proven effectiveness, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) continue to receive significantly less funding than non-Indigenous organisations to deliver key services. ACCOs are best placed to deliver culturally safe, holistic support that strengthens children, families and communities. Yet access to these services is inconsistent across Australia, leaving many families without the help they need. A national investment of $801 million would expand proven early intervention services, reduce long-term costs across child protection, health and justice systems, and help governments meet their Closing the Gap commitments.

This funding gap is partly driven by rigid grant structures that fail to account for local contexts and community needs. In the child protection sector—which closely intersects with youth justice - the 2024 Family Matters report found that ACCOs receive just 6% of government funding, despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children representing 41% of children in out-of-home care.

At the same time, governments have been slow to translate successful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led initiatives into lasting policy and funding reform. The Lowitja Institute has found that evidence generated through evaluations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs is rarely used to drive genuine policy and practice change. Significant gaps remain in governments' evaluation capability, the transparency of evaluation processes, and the implementation of established frameworks, limiting opportunities to scale proven community-led approaches.

Investing in community-led approaches is one of the most effective ways Australia can build safer, stronger and more flourishing communities.

“My work with Aboriginal families in my community of Logan QLD has helped me understand the need for holistic support for Aboriginal families and communities and the urgent need for long-term funding for Aboriginal community-controlled organisations who know their communities best, have the answers and should be resourced to lead the way.”— Bianca Manning 

Long-term evaluations of initiatives such as Pathways to Prevention, Communities That Care, and justice reinvestment initiatives across Australia demonstrate that community-led early support strengthens families, improves children's health, education and wellbeing, helps keep children safely connected to their families, communities and culture, and reduces the likelihood that they will come into contact with the youth justice system.

Future investment should not only support locally led innovation and rigorous evaluation; it must also ensure that evidence from successful initiatives informs long-term funding decisions and broader policy reform. Australia does not need more pilot programs that are evaluated and forgotten, it needs sustained investment in approaches that communities and evidence have already shown to work.

Prevention Case Studies

Pathways to Prevention

Established in a highly disadvantaged area of south-east Queensland in 1999 and concluded in 2011, Pathways to Prevention is one of Australia's longest-running and most rigorously evaluated early intervention initiatives. Developed by Griffith University, the Queensland Department of Education and Mission Australia in partnership with local schools, families and community organisations, the program recognised that preventing youth offending requires supporting children and families long before they come into contact with the justice system. It combined an evidence-based preschool communication and social skills program with comprehensive family support, including parenting programs, counselling, home visiting, practical assistance and referrals to specialist services. 

More than two decades of evaluation demonstrate the long-term impact of this approach. Children who participated in the preschool communication program were more than 50% less likely to become involved in court-adjudicated youth offending by age 17. Remarkably, none of the children whose families received both the preschool intervention and family support became involved in youth offending, highlighting the importance of combining support for children with support for parents and caregivers. Across the whole Pathways community, the rate of youth offending was also around 20% lower than in comparable disadvantaged communities in Queensland. 

The initiative also strengthened children's communication skills, social and emotional development, school engagement, parent-child relationships, and families' connections to community services. Evaluations consistently found that combining family support with high-quality early childhood programs produced stronger outcomes than either approach on its own. 

Pathways to Prevention is also a sound economic investment. A recent return-on-investment analysis found that every $1 invested in the preschool communication program generated an average return of $7.65 through avoided court-adjudicated youth offending alone. 

The project demonstrates that reducing youth offending requires more than responding after harm has occurred. Sustained investment in evidence-based early intervention, strong partnerships between schools and community services, and practical support for families can improve children's wellbeing, strengthen communities and reduce later involvement in the justice system.

Communities that Care

Communities That Care (CTC) is an internationally recognised, evidence-based prevention framework that helps communities reduce youth offending and improve child wellbeing by addressing the underlying causes of crime before problems emerge. Rather than responding to offending after it occurs, CTC brings together schools, health services, local government, police, community organisations and families to identify local risk and protective factors using community data, and then invests in evidence-based programs that respond to each community's specific needs. This whole-of-community approach enables communities to lead their own prevention strategies while drawing on the best available research. 

Communities That Care is one of the most rigorously evaluated prevention models in the world. A large randomised controlled trial involving 24 communities in the United States found that young people in Communities That Care sites were significantly less likely to engage in delinquent behaviour, violence, cigarette smoking and alcohol use than those in comparison communities. These positive outcomes were sustained years after the initial investment, demonstrating that coordinated prevention can deliver long-term benefits for children and communities. Long-term economic evaluation also found the model generated an estimated US$8.22 in benefits for every US$1 invested, reflecting reduced crime, improved health and better educational outcomes. 

The model has also been successfully adapted in Australia, including in communities across Victoria, where it has strengthened collaboration between schools, local government and community organisations to identify local priorities and implement evidence-based prevention strategies. More recently, Professor Ross Homel's international systematic review identified Communities That Care as one of only two whole-of-community prevention models with strong scientific evidence of sustained impact on youth crime and related social outcomes. 

Communities That Care demonstrates that safer communities are built by investing early rather than responding late. By strengthening families, supporting schools, coordinating local services and empowering communities to implement evidence-based solutions, the model reduces youth offending while improving children's health, wellbeing, and life opportunities.

Examples of early Intervention and Prevention work by ACCOs

Deadly Connections (Marrickville, NSW):
This program supports Aboriginal youth aged 7-18 who are justice-involved or at risk, using culturally-informed early intervention, prevention, and diversion strategies. It adopts a holistic, family-centered approach to improve mental health, reduce risky behaviors, and strengthen cultural connections. Between 2019-2023, the program saw a 42% improvement in health and wellbeing and a 40% increase in cultural connection, with those engaged longer reporting better outcomes.

Olabud Doogethu (WA):

Western Australia’s first justice reinvestment site, Olabud Doogethu is a community-led, Aboriginal-driven project in Halls Creek Shire. It builds community cohesion and leadership to reduce youth crime and justice involvement. Between 2017-2020, the project achieved significant reductions, including a 63% drop in burglaries, 69% fewer arrests, and a 64% decrease in Aboriginal youth admitted to police custody.

Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project (Bourke, NSW):

The first Aboriginal-led, place-based justice reinvestment model in Australia, Maranguka focuses on a life-course approach addressing systemic issues leading to justice involvement from childhood to adulthood. It partners with local services to implement initiatives tackling bail breaches, warrants, and driving programs. An independent review in 2016-17 found a 38% reduction in juvenile charges, improved school retention, and $3.1 million in estimated savings.

Baulaarr Bagay Warruwi Burranba-li-gu (Walgett, NSW):

Baulaarr Bagay Warruwi Burranba-li-gu (meaning “Two River Pathway to Change”) is an Aboriginal-led, place-based initiative in Walgett, NSW, developed through a partnership between the Dharriwaa Elders Group and UNSW Sydney. 

The initiative works to reduce Aboriginal children's contact with the justice system by strengthening families, supporting young people, and improving collaboration between community organisations and government agencies. Centered on local leadership and self-determination, it recognises culture, family and community as essential protective factors for children's wellbeing

Between 2020 and 2023, the initiative exceeded its target of reducing Aboriginal children's involvement with the justice system to less than 10%, with only 7.8% of Aboriginal children and young people in Walgett appearing before the Children's Court in 2021. This equated to a 32% decrease since 2016. 

2. End the Patchwork - Establish Enforceable National Standards and Accountability for Youth Justice

Australia’s youth justice systems currently vary significantly between states and territories, resulting not only in inconsistent protections for children, but also in deeply uneven levels of transparency, oversight, and accountability.

In many jurisdictions, there is limited public visibility into what is actually happening inside youth detention systems - including whether governments are delivering the rehabilitation, education, healthcare, disability support, and therapeutic services they claim to provide. Reporting is often inconsistent, fragmented, delayed, or inaccessible, making it difficult for communities, advocates, researchers, and Parliament to properly assess outcomes or hold governments accountable.

The Australian Government should work with states and territories to establish strong, enforceable National Minimum Standards for youth justice, aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Australia’s broader international human rights obligations. 

But these standards must go beyond broad principles. They should include clear benchmarks, detailed reporting requirements, independent oversight, and accountability mechanisms with real consequences when jurisdictions fail to meet them.

For example, the standards should:

• Prioritise diversion, prevention, and early intervention

• Guarantee access to healthcare, education, disability support, housing support, and culturally safe services

• Prohibit harmful practices including solitary confinement and the use of spit hoods

• Mandate investment in community-based, ACCO-led alternatives to detention

• Establish independent monitoring, public reporting, and transparent oversight mechanisms across all jurisdictions

• Require governments to publish consistent, granular data on youth detention, use of force, isolation practices, self-harm incidents, access to services, and outcomes for children

• Ensure regular public reporting so communities can accurately understand what is happening within youth justice systems across every state and territory

Why Federal leadership matters

From a human rights perspective, national leadership is urgently needed. This work should sit within the Attorney-General’s portfolio given Australia’s obligations under international human rights frameworks and treaties.

Recent public debate and media reporting have highlighted ongoing concerns about youth justice responses across Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Victoria, where governments continue to prioritise punitive responses despite mounting evidence that incarceration does not reduce reoffending or improve community safety. 

At the same time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal and community leaders continue to call for evidence-based alternatives centred on prevention, diversion, housing, education, mental health support, and community-led responses.

A child’s access to safety, dignity, and justice should not depend on their postcode.

Reducing youth incarceration ultimately requires more than reforming detention systems. It requires building a society that opens doors for children before crises escalate - one that strengthens families, invests in communities, and ensures no child is abandoned by the systems meant to support them.

Further Information

Expert legal advice on federal powers to set minimum standards and prescribe a minimum age of criminal responsibility. 

Summary of this expert legal advice

NATSILS Open letter to Prime Minister, calling on him to convene an Emergency Youth Justice Summit 

Help Way Earlier! - How Australia can transform Child justice to improve safety and wellbeing. The Australian Human Rights Commission. Released in 2024, Help Way Earlier! brings together research, lived experience and evidence from Australia and overseas to show how child wellbeing, early support and coordinated action across health, education, child protection and justice systems can reduce youth offending and improve community safety. It argues that lasting reform requires governments to intervene earlier, address the underlying drivers of offending, and place children's rights and wellbeing at the centre of policy

Evidence Based Approaches to Child Justice. The Australian Human Rights Commission. Released in October 2025, this supplement to Help Way Earlier! showcases six Australian and international case studies demonstrating evidence-based approaches to child justice reform. Together, they highlight how early intervention, therapeutic and community-led responses, and sustained cross-sector collaboration can improve outcomes for children.

Justice Reform Initiative The Justice Reform Initiative brings together legal experts, researchers, people with lived experience and community leaders to advocate for evidence-based alternatives to incarceration. Its research demonstrates that reducing imprisonment and investing in prevention, rehabilitation and community-based responses leads to better outcomes for individuals and safer communities.