Our Youth Justice Group Conferencing program and partnership with the Katherine Justice Reinvestment project, work to divert children and young people in the Northern Territory away from the criminal justice system. Jesuit Social Services has worked in the Northern Territory since 2008, supporting the development of place-based and locally led solutions to issues spanning governance, environment, community development and youth criminal justice.
How do these programs help?
Our Northern Territory programs respect the autonomy of local communities, and strives to strengthen local capacity and leadership to respond to local issues spanning governance, environment, community development and youth criminal justice.
After an invitation to work collaboratively with the Central and Eastern Arrente people in Santa Teresa (Ltyentye Apurte) and Alice Springs (Mparntwe), Jesuit Social Serivces’s work in the Northern Territory has grown to include working alongside communities and organisations across the top end, including the communities of Atitjere and Engawala on the Plenty Highway and Tennant Creek, as well as with the Thamarrurr Regional Aboriginal Authority Corporation and Thamarrurr Development Corporation in Wadeye.
Our work focuses on building the governance and service delivery capacity of the communities and organisations we work with.
To enable a more strategic response to the structural issues we see playing out in the lives of people on the ground, in 2016 we established an advocacy presence and office in Darwin. Jesuit Social Services has a strong network of relationships within government and community leaders and is a strong and vocal advocate on the issues directly affecting the communities we work alongside, particularly on youth justice issues.
Youth Justice Group Conferencing
Youth Justice Group Conferencing (YJGC) is a restorative justice program that facilitates dialogue between young offenders and those impacted by their actions. The program aims to help young people take responsibility for their behaviour, make amends for the harm caused, and restore relationships within their community. Unlike traditional court and prison systems, which often fail to prevent reoffending, YJGC offers a problem-solving approach that ensures young offenders are held accountable without further entrenching them in the justice system. By diverting youth away from more serious offending, the program fosters accountability, empathy, and community integration.
The process begins with preparation, where a group convenor identifies and prepares participants, including the offender, their family, the victim, and community members. During the group conference, participants engage in a structured dialogue, allowing victims to express the impact of the crime and offenders to understand the consequences of their actions. The convenor facilitates this process to ensure all voices are heard.
YJGC is available to young people aged 10–17 who have pleaded guilty to an offence, committed serious crimes, and consented to participate. A judge in any of the Northern Territory’s Children’s Courts can refer a young person to Pre-Sentence Conferencing, under section 84 of the Youth Justice Act. A referral is made after a court has found a young person guilty of an offence, and the referral can be made on the application of the young person or on the Court’s initiative.
Jesuit Social Services delivers Youth Justice Group Conferencing in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, and Alice Springs.
Justice Reinvestment
Justice Reinvestment (JR) is a different way of working to address the causes of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the justice system. It is a community led, strengths-based approach that aims to shift peopleʼs interactions away from the justice system by targeting the causes of crime such as poverty, unemployment and homelessness.
The model looks at saving money on the tertiary end of the justice system by investing in prevention and early intervention. Instead of locking people up, it aims to minimise reoffending through systemic change, policy reform, service delivery and data led solutions.
JR also supports local programs that address the broader social determinants of crime, such as increasing school attendance, enhancing employment opportunities, and fostering more cohesive collaboration between service providers, government agencies, and communities.
For more information on our Northern Territory Justice programs, contact John Adams, General Manager, Northern Territory at john.adams@jss.org.au.