The Worth A Second Chance Podcast

Welcome to the third season of the Worth A Second Chance podcast – sharing true stories, challenges and solutions from the frontlines of Australia's youth justice systems. 

Youth justice in Australia is at a tipping point.

Right across the country, we’re seeing young people locked up in harsh prison environments that we know aren’t stopping crime. Reoffending rates are high, and kids aren’t getting the support they need to turn their lives around.

It’s clear our current approaches aren’t working. And people are calling for change.

Our new season, launching in February, spotlights the evidence-based programs and justice solutions that we know work.

Victorians will vote in a state election on Saturday.

Every election is important, and this one comes as many Victorians continue to experience hardship and disadvantage. The current government has enacted a range of important reforms that work towards reducing inequality – like stronger support for kids leaving out-of-home care, and a new youth justice framework that will give young people the support they need to turn their lives around – but there’s more to be done.

For 45 years, Jesuit Social Services, the organisation Worth A Second Chance, has delivered services and advocated to drive positive social change in Victoria. This election is no different.

We recently released our election platform, which is a blueprint for a social change agenda for Victoria, offering recommendations for reform across a range of interconnected social policy areas, including youth justice.

Today, Jesuit Social Services Policy Manager – Victoria, Elle Jackson, shares what a fair, effective and humane youth justice system for Victoria involves, how our next government could get us there, and the positive impact this reform would have on the lives of young people in trouble, their families, and our whole community.

Notes for this episode

Most of us know what a prison typically looks like. Cells, bars, locks, barbed wire, high fences – generally pretty harsh places. But picture this instead. Not hundreds of beds but just eight, for the whole facility. Located in the neighbourhood, not hundreds of kilometres out of the way. An environment that feels more like a home than a jail; semi-open, not locked up, and where staff and residents have dynamic and respectful relationships.

It’s not a pipedream – it’s the idea that won Dr Sanne Oostermeijer and architect Matthew Dwyer the $30,000 Melbourne Design Challenge in 2018. Sanne and Matthew’s idea outlined best practices for the design of youth justice facilities, which can support young people onto a better path after time in detention. On today’s episode, Sanne shares how good design can lead to better outcomes and safer communities.

Here are the links we mention in this episode:

Laws and policies are created by our leaders. But in a democracy, like Australia, everyday people can influence the decisions they make. And in the youth justice system, that’s really important. If we care about the children in detention and about how they’re supported to understand the impact of their actions and make changes in their lives, then we need to let our government know.

Liana Buchanan returns in today's episode of the Worth A Second Chance podcast. She's the principal commissioner at the Commission for Children and Young People in Victoria, which is the state's independent advocate for the safety and wellbeing of young people. Liana tells us about the realistic and effective criminal justice reform that could happen in Victoria to improve the system, and the important role our whole community plays in ensuring those troubled young people are safe, supported and accountable.

Here are the links we mention in this episode

A Maori or Pasifika young person in Victoria’s criminal justice system might come across Jes Wikaira. She’s a cultural and intensive support worker on a program called the Youth Justice Community Support Service, which helps young people reset their lives and connect with the support they need after being in contact with the law.

Jes works with and advocates for young people who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. That’s important, because they make up around forty per cent of the people in Victoria’s justice system – a disproportionate rate, which is due to complex and overlapping factors, including the continuing impacts of colonisation, entrenched disadvantage, and disconnection from vital support.

Here, Jes talks about the culturally safe support she provides to a whole family – not just an individual, in recognition of how Maori families like her own are comprised and understood – and the misconceptions about the people she works alongside that she’d like the wider community to extinguish, to make everyone feel more safe and welcome.

On an average night in Australia, there's around 800 young people locked up in youth detention. But what do we know from there? What are the conditions like inside those facilities? What support do young people get to turn their lives around? And who makes sure everything's running as it should be?

To answer those questions, meet Liana Buchanan. She's the principal commissioner at the Commission for Children and Young People in Victoria, which is the state's independent advocate for the safety and wellbeing of young people.

Here, she talks about the experiences of young people who find themselves in detention; about her team of volunteers who go inside prisons every month to scrutinise what's happening; about how misleading media stories labelling kids 'young thugs' can change the way people are treated in the justice system – but also about the positive policy progress we've made in Victoria that she's keen to protect.

Vincent Schiraldi co-founded the Justice Lab at Columbia University. The Justice Lab is devoted to reducing society’s reliance the criminal justice system as a solution to social problems through research; education; and convening scholars, practitioners, policy makers, advocates and formerly incarcerated people. 

Projects include eliminating youth prisons, reducing the footprint and negative impact of community corrections, and creating a developmentally appropriate response to offending by young adults.

In this candid conversation Vinny shares with us the story of how he came to work in justice reform and what it is that drives him to do the work he does. We hope you enjoy this chat with Vincent Schiraldi.

Bernie Shakeshaft is the founder and CEO of BackTrack YouthWorks in Armidale NSW. He has spent the past 25 years living out his passion, working with dogs and supporting kids at risk. In 2006 with his children growing up and forging their own paths in life, he was determined to turn his vision of working with the most disadvantaged young people in our communities into a reality. To keep them alive, out of jail, and chasing their hopes and dreams. Under Bernie’s leadership, BackTrack has forged a new beginning for over a 1000 young people. In 2018 Bernie starred in a popular documentary, Back Track Boys, the film followed his work and the remarkable influence he has on a group of young people. In 2020 Bernie was awarded the Australian of the Year Local Hero award.