‘It’s a snowball effect’: The push to Raise the Age

As a GP working at a correctional facility, Dr Kirsty Jennings has seen firsthand just how a lack of trauma-informed health support has impacted some of Australia’s most vulnerable children.
 
‘That cycle just comes through into the adult men that I see … it’s a snowball effect,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘When you do see people that have been imprisoned or incarcerated since they were 10, that’s one of the hardest things.
 
‘I’m seeing these young men who are coming in and the rates of recidivism are very high because we are not putting into place any kind of transitional care, so when people are being released into the community, there’s no support structure in place.
 
‘There’s a cycle that’s gone on, which is incredibly disheartening because it means we’re not doing the job that we should be – we’re not supporting people.’
 
Each year, 20 February marks the United Nation’s World Day of Social Justice, aimed at ‘achieving improved and fair outcomes for all’.
 
In 2025, Dr Jennings is using the day to shine a light on the harms of incarcerating children.
 
According to the national Raise the Age campaign, ‘children belong in school yards, not in prison cells’.
 
The movement, supported by the RACGP, is calling for uniformity among all states and territories, with the minimum age of criminal responsibility to be at least 14.
 
It also outlines the harms of incarcerating children, its high costs, that it does not reduce rates of crime, and advocates for children experiencing the impacts of trauma and disadvantage.
 
In Australia, 44,316 people are in custody, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people making up 35% of those.
 
While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children account for 65% of younger children in prisons.
 
Dr Jennings, who is a Biripi woman and Deputy Chair of RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, said one of the ‘most disheartening parts’ is that the prison system creates health burdens.
 
‘When we’re talking about social, emotional wellbeing for men who are incarcerated, the rates of mental health issues are huge – loss of who you are in your family system, loss of activity in the community or any kind of options that they may have had,’ she said.
 
‘For GPs, I think it’s about being aware of the environment that some of these people who are being released into the community have come from.
 
‘A lot of these people have poor health and haven’t had health follow-ups because of various reasons, and they’ve been let down by the system, so continuity, genuine empathy and understanding are the most important parts when dealing with anyone who’s been incarcerated.’
 
The Raise the Age campaign states that in just one year across Australia, almost 600 children aged 13 years and younger are imprisoned and ‘thousands more were hauled through the criminal legal system’.
 
The age of criminal responsibility varies across Australia, ranging between 10 and 14 years.
 
And while some states and territories have raised the age, others have lowered it.
 
In the Northern Territory, the new Government lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 years old last year.
 
While in Queensland, where the age of criminal responsibility is 10, its new State Government passed new ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws in December cracking down on youth offenders.
 
Dr Tim Jones, Chair of RACGP Specific Interests Child and Young Person’s Health, labelled these changes a ‘regressive step’.
 
He points out that at the same time as Australia is banning children from having a social media account due to their emotional and mental development, ‘we’re quite happy to send them to jail’.
 
‘When we see how a child is conducting themselves, we need to understand that is entirely in relation to the world around them, and they have a great ability to change,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘If we incarcerate our children, we are telling them we don’t believe they are savable, that things can’t get better.
 
‘We know that children who are given appropriate support, who are provided with the ingredients they need to get ahead, are resourceful and will get there.
 
‘We know that kids who go into the justice system tend not to exit it, so that’s why it’s a health issue.’
 
Last year, a Federal Parliamentary Committee was tasked with investigating Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system, with its findings due to be handed down in July this year.
 
In its submission into the inquiry, the RACGP called for youth justice to be considered a health issue, with young people at risk of incarceration or experiencing incarceration supported with access to care from a GP and primary healthcare team.
 
It called for a whole-system approach, with cross-policy portfolios, and the health and wellbeing of children and their families to be prioritised.
 
According to a 2023 analysis of the Raise the Age campaign, a trauma-informed model could offer a solution for all parties.
 
‘Criminalising and detaining children, including those who are highly traumatised, is a breach of Australia’s human rights obligations as well as being ineffective, criminogenic and expensive,’ it says.
 
‘Australia needs to work differently to curtail the number of children whose lives are currently on a trajectory into 30 years of justice involvement.’
 
Dr Jones said GPs hold a privileged role in their communities, where they can advocate for what their patients need to thrive.
 
‘We know who’s in their orbit and what their struggles are, and we do a phenomenal job as GPs of connecting people to the right supports and providing that support ourselves, and sometimes advocating to a system that needs to hear that things have to change,’ he said.
 
‘The most powerful thing we can do as GPs is to understand how the child is viewing themselves and viewing the world around them, and help them to have a more balanced, perhaps a more self-respectful view of that.
 
‘Children just hear what people tell them about themselves, and as GPs, we have such a power to be sitting there and showing them that we see a lot more in them than perhaps they’re being told by others.’
 
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