Discover how Professor Stuart Kinner's world first study on the health of justice-involved young people is uncovering critical insights into the risks and causes of premature death among vulnerable young Australians.
A world-first study has documented the rates, causes, and risk factors for death among young Australians after contact with the youth justice system. The project linked youth justice, corrections, and death records for over 48,000 young people who had contact with the youth justice system in Queensland from 1994 to 2017.
“Adults released from prison die at an unacceptably high rate, but until now we’ve known remarkably little about what happens to young people after contact with the youth justice system,” said Professor Stuart Kinner, who leads the Justice Health Group at Curtin University and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
The study looked at 3 groups of young people who had been: in detention; under supervision in the community; or charged by the police with a crime but never convicted. Professor Kinner and colleagues observed a ‘dose-response’ relationship between the extent and duration of criminal justice system contact, and mortality rate. The rate of death was greatest for young people who had experienced detention.
“We found that the rate of death after youth detention was more than 6 times higher than among their age and sex matched community peers, with most deaths due to suicide— over one third—injury, overdose, or violence,” said Professor Kinner, who has worked for decades with governments in Australia and with UN agencies to explore health issues in the criminal justice system.
“Importantly, our study does not suggest that contact with the youth justice system caused these deaths. Criminal justice systems tend to ‘select’ people from the community who have complex health needs, who are already at increased risk of premature death. Unfortunately, we don’t do nearly enough to reduce this mortality risk.
“Therefore, although preventing youth detention is important, this alone will not prevent these tragic deaths. These young people need our help and support, both during and, critically, after contact with the criminal justice system,” he warns.
Over his career, Professor Kinner has spent a lot of time in prisons in Australia and overseas. The portrayal of prison environments as scary or dangerous does not match with what he has witnessed, describing prisons as “often tragically banal”.
“Prisons are, in important ways, like hospitals: expensive, taxpayer-funded institutions that some of the most marginalised and unwell members of our community pass through. If people discharged from our hospitals were dying at more than 6 times the rate of their community peers, we would be very concerned,” said Professor Kinner.
Collaborating with government and community stakeholders has been a cornerstone of Professor Kinner’s career and he emphasises the importance of transparency in research, even when the findings are difficult to digest.
"Despite the fact that our findings can be disturbing, organisations we’ve worked with have always supported publication," said Professor Kinner.
“Partnerships like this take time to develop and are based on mutual trust and respect,” he said.
Next steps
“These vulnerable young people face an unacceptable risk of premature death and we need to ‘open the black box’ between youth justice system contact and death, to inform targeted prevention,” said Professor Kinner.
Thanks to additional NHMRC funding, work is underway with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to develop a system for routinely monitoring the health of justice involved young people, using linked administrative data.
“Reliable data on the health of these young people is needed to drive investments in care—What gets counted gets done.”
“Indigenous Australians are over-represented in prisons by a factor of 13, and in youth detention by a factor of 28. These appalling statistics must change. Our research is helping to identify the problems. We must listen to Indigenous communities to identify solutions.” said Professor Kinner.
Chief Investigator: Professor Stuart Kinner
Administering institution: Curtin University and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Team list: Professor Rohan Borschmann, Professor Alan Clough, Professor Susan Sawyer, Professor Matthew Spittal, Professor Adrian Miller, Professor Yvonne Cadet-James, Dr Jesse Young and Dr Lucas Calais-Ferreira
Grant information: Project Grant (2016–2020), $620,704.80.