723 youth-justice records. 609 evidence-rated. 93x average cost gap.

Australia locks up children.
There are better answers.

This is a public guide for people who have seen the harm and want to understand what can change. Start with the human story, then find the evidence, services, alternatives, costs, and people already working for a different future.

The numbers are catalogue records, not endorsements. Each record should be read with its evidence level, source trail, location, and review status so weak signals stay visible.

Main work now live

The core JusticeHub work is one step from here.

CONTAINED, remand, youth justice evidence, UN and global cases, Matrix insights, mapping, and justice reinvestment each have a public entry point.

Immersive experience

CONTAINED

The container pathway, tour, stories, register flow, and action pathway for people who have walked through the experience.

Plain-English explainer

Remand

A sendable page explaining custody before sentence, the bail support gap, and the facts behind the current remand pressure.

Global case work

UN and refugee cases

The Justice Matrix surface for refugee, asylum, non-refoulement, and UN-linked strategic case law across borders.

Matrix intelligence

Cases, insights, and map

The main case and campaign hub, including search, case profiles, corpus insights, issue pages, and the live map.

Place-based reform

Justice reinvestment

The national justice reinvestment map, grouped by place, with lead organisations, movement history, and site pages.

Finding alternatives

If detention is the wrong answer, what support can actually hold a young person?

The Australian Living Map of Alternatives helps people look for local services, court support, housing, mentoring, school pathways, cultural support, and community-led programs that can change the path before custody.

First-contact triage

A no-wrong-door intake that asks what the young person needs in the next 72 hours: safety, legal help, bail, housing, family, school, culture, health, or transport.

Bail and remand support

Court support, bail address options, family liaison, reminders, transport, mentor check-ins, and practical plans that make release safer than custody.

Stable place to land

Housing, respite, supported accommodation, family mediation, and safe local places so "no address" does not become a detention pathway.

Learning and work

Flexible school, TAFE, training, paid work, social enterprise, and creative practice that give a young person a next week worth turning up for.

Healing and culture

Elders, family, on-Country work, AOD support, mental health, peer leadership, and trauma-aware practice held by trusted local people.

Proof and resourcing

Plain evidence, costs, referral details, outcomes, funding needs, and source links so local work can be found and backed.

One roof

The long-term goal is a real place where people can sit together and solve practical problems.

A local JusticeHub should bring support navigation, alternatives, legal help, story consent, funders, and practice learning into one room, so families and workers are not left to navigate everything alone.

Welcome desk

A calm front door that routes people to support, not a maze of forms.

Local alternatives bench

Screens, maps, and cards showing local alternatives, referral paths, evidence, and gaps.

Law and advocacy table

Cases, campaign memory, briefs, complaints, and source packs that help people act carefully.

Story consent studio

Empathy Ledger capture, review, withdrawal, attribution, and cultural safety before anything public.

Funding room

A place to turn community work into clear asks, partner packs, and practical backing.

Practice lab

Practitioners, young people, families, and system people improving the model together.

Centre of Excellence for Youth Justice

If we ask people to believe something, we show where it came from.

JusticeHub is careful with claims. We name the source, show the organisation where possible, and mark what is still being checked.

See the evidence trail

60

Triangulated claims

Checked against 3+ sources

28

Corroborated

Checked against 2 sources

147

Tier 1 frontline YJ orgs

Confirmed in civic register

1,600

ACCO certified

Via ORIC public register

Detention

$1.3M

per young person per year

$3,634.9/day national average. NT: $3,452.25/day. ROGS 2024-25.

Community Models

$14K

per young person (average)

Across 1,193 models with cost data.

93x

cheaper. Better outcomes. Proven.

Try the calculator
First issue guideResearch, not legal advice

If CONTAINED leaves people asking "what now?", start with youth remand.

This guide explains why young people are held before sentence, what it costs, what alternatives exist, who is organising, and what a visitor, advocate, worker, funder, or decision-maker can do next.

Law

cases, campaigns, and rights in plain language

Support

detention sites, local alternatives, and funding

People

stories only when consent makes them safe to share

Three ways to go deeper.

Once you know why you are here, choose a practical next step: find help, add what you know, or use the proof.

The public record

Numbers are not enough on their own. They help people see where money goes, what support exists, and which claims still need care.

Stories & articles

All stories & articles

Stay with the work

The alternative is already here. The next step is helping more people find it, trust it, fund it, and grow it.

The work is happening in communities, services, courts, campaigns, and families. JusticeHub brings those threads together so people can act with care instead of guessing.