The WA government is the state’s largest employer, with about 166,000 employees across the state.

WARNING: This story discusses incidents of self-harm and contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died.

Despite its size, you’d expect, for the most part, taxpayers to get bang for their buck by having the right people doing the right jobs.

But in some of the most critical areas of the WA government, it’s not happening.

That’s not the opinion of critics or advocates or others whose opinions can easily be dismissed.

It’s the message from two people who know the state’s youth justice system better than most.

Not taking their advice has already come at a significant cost, which will only get larger the longer the problems are left to grow.

Police not the answer

The first hit came from Police Commissioner Col Blanch, whose officers are often on the frontline of youth crime.

Lots of people don’t want police to be the answer. And neither, as it turns out, does Blanch.

“We would prefer other agencies be primary responders where there’s no immediate threats or violence, either in a mental health space or a child space,” he told the ABC.

“You name it, we want professionals there first.

“When you have kids who are disadvantaged committing theft, it is something that we need to divert away from and get support.”

Blanch said youth justice was a complex area best dealt with by experts in the area, not police with the baggage that comes with their badge.

Commissioner’s bombshells

Then came the bombshells from former corrective services commissioner Mike Reynolds, who was sacked after WA’s first death in juvenile detention happened on his watch.

His experience rising through the ranks from prison officer to chief has given him significant insight into what went wrong in lots of areas.

That included corrective services being constrained by sitting within the bureaucracy of the Justice Department, rather than being its own service.

But one of his key messages is a simple one: he should never have been in charge of youth justice.

“Corrections is a custody-based service,” he explained.

“You can’t do the two together.”

It’s something every other state and territory has realised, but not WA.

“Western Australia is a unique part of Australia, so we’ve got specific needs,” was the premier’s explanation just over a month ago, without saying what those needs were.

The wrong approach

What both Blanch and Reynolds are getting at is that WA is trying to address youth justice issues in fundamentally the wrong way.

Because in many cases, youth justice is just a symptom of child welfare issues.

“These are children whom we have left waiting for help that never came,” Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds told the National Press Club this week.

“When they are stealing food because they are hungry, or when they’re stealing cars because they’re bored and without any hope for the future, we criminalise them.

“What we are doing is not making the community any safer.”

Which is meant to be the aim of both the police and the justice systems.

Youth justice won’t win votes

But alternatives to police or justice don’t really exist — and those that do are rarely adequately funded or resourced.

Hollonds has an idea of why.

“When I ask about the lack of progress on reform, I’m told by some members of parliament there’s no votes in children.”

Reynolds said his experience of trying to change youth justice, and the broader corrections system, came up against similar issues.

“It’s the old rhetoric with corrections. Do you build a new school, a new hospital or a new prison?” he said.

“I don’t think they had a great concern about youth at all. I don’t think they had a concern about corrections at all.

“As long as it wasn’t in the media, they didn’t care.”

Former corrective services minister Bill Johnston rejected Reynolds’s characterisations, saying the claims were false and could not be substantiated.

Positive change

To give the current government credit, there have been changes to the worst elements of the youth justice system, with young people in detention spending more time out of their cells and accessing more programs.

According to a spokesperson, that includes neurodevelopmental disability screening, assessment and intervention and young people receiving ongoing support from child health experts.

But the biggest changes only came after 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd lost his life in the youth justice system last year.

And despite the improvements, a second teenager lost his life behind bars just over a month ago.

Early intervention call

The Inspector of Custodial Services said those improvements had made a meaningful difference.

“But I’d also say, a word of caution, there’s a long way to go,” Eamon Ryan said.

And one area where a lot of that work needs to be done, according to Ryan, Hollonds, Reynolds and Blanch is intervening earlier.

“Preventative work is much better than trying to fix the problem once it’s arisen.”

It’s expensive to set up because doing it properly, according to Social Reinvestment WA head Sophie Stewart, would require governments to “invest at different points all at once”.

The long-term payoff, though — both financial and moral — would be significant, she said.

Changing nothing costs more

Fixing prisons, and particularly youth justice, isn’t a vote-winner.

But getting it right prevents so many future issues: time behind bars can be spent on rehabilitation and reduce re-offending.

Health and mental health problems, as well as drug and alcohol addiction, can start to be treated, which would be cheaper than allowing problems to worsen.

And there’s one group that can change it.

“It’s got to be government,” Reynolds said.

Not doing any of that just costs every taxpayer money and makes the community less safe.

Those kinds of conclusions almost certainly wouldn’t fly in the private sector.

It’s hard to argue they should be accepted when it’s taxpayer money on the line either.

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