Why Solitary Confinement Fails To Stop Youth Crime
Solitary confinement in youth detention is often sold as a ‘tough-on-crime’ solution, but the evidence tells a very different story. Far from preventing crime, isolation traumatises children and only works to increase their likelihood of further contact with the criminal justice system.
Recidivism among juvenile offenders is high; the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that 84% of young offenders in Australia aged 10-16 were re-incarcerated within 12 months of release (AIHW, 2023-24). The AIHW has also found that there was a general correlation between the age at time of release and the likelihood of reoffending; in general, the younger the age of release, the higher the chance that they would be re-incarcerated within 6-12 months (AIHW, 2021-2022). These levels of recidivism are only reinforced by the use of damaging solitary confinement practices.
The children who experience these kinds of practices, where they are prevented from social engagement and development, are essentially forced into anti-social, psychologically damaging behaviours. Prolonged and repeated isolation frequently results in heightened anxiety, aggression, depression and self-harming tendencies, and social withdrawal, among others (Ombudsman NT, 2024). Furthermore, many children who enter the juvenile detention system are already experiencing disadvantage, whether that be marginalisation, poverty, abuse or neglect.
Solitary practices create “an environment of re-traumatisation”, and further exacerbate pre-existing mental health problems, which many children in juvenile detention already experience (Queensland Family and Child Commission, Child Death Review Board Annual Report 2022-2023). The psychological trauma resulting from solitary confinement lasts for far longer than for however long a child is held in prison; it inevitably affects their ability to socially reintegrate into their communities and simply pushes them back into criminal behaviour.
A report into the use of isolation practices at the Adelaide Youth Training Centre released in July 2025 emphasised the role of such practices in the disruption of crucial youth developmental processes, including social learning, identity formation and emotional regulation, as well as cognitive and educational development (SA Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People, July 2025). Solitary confinement measures are fundamentally damaging to children in detention, preventing them from accessing education and programs that could help to rehabilitate young offenders and assist them in effectively rejoining their communities (QLD Youth Justice Reform Select Committee, 2024). Being unable to develop social and emotional regulation, as well as not receiving adequate education, results in severe disadvantage for these children upon release. It is hardly surprising, then, that these children go on to commit further crime that results in their re-incarceration.
Contact with the juvenile justice system not only increases the likelihood of youth recidivism, but it also acts as a pipeline into the adult criminal justice system. Juvenile offending is frequently a prerequisite for adult offending, with 1 in 5 incarcerated adults in Australia experiencing youth detention, often more than once (Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system, Submission 177, 2024). This clearly demonstrates that juvenile detention practices, particularly those involving isolation, are completely ineffective in preventing recidivism. The juvenile detention system does not rehabilitate young offenders, it only serves to traumatise the children who enter the system and worsen already-existing disadvantage, largely through harmful punitive practices.
It is imperative that juvenile detention centres start using measures that focus on rehabilitating young offenders to prepare them for reintegration into society. Solitary confinement and isolation-based practices more generally are incompatible with any youth justice system that seeks to rehabilitate young offenders, and their use in Australia must be eliminated, without exception.