Tasmania Plans Youth Facility Focused on Healing Over Jail

Tasmania is closing its only youth detention center and building something different in its place: a facility designed to heal young people, not just lock them up.

The new center in Pontville will replace Ashley Youth Detention Centre, which a government inquiry found was causing serious harm to children. Instead of institutional cells, young people will live in small houses holding just four residents each, with views of surrounding hills and rural land.

The state government calls it a "child first, offender second" approach. Minister Jo Palmer says the facility will help young people "heal and prepare for life after detention" through therapeutic programs tailored to each person's needs.

The Bright Side

The design reflects real lessons learned. Families will be able to visit regularly, with some even staying overnight. Young people can keep seeing their own therapists and mentors from outside. Planning for their return home begins the day they arrive.

Aboriginal cultural safety sits at the heart of the new model. Aboriginal children are nearly five times more likely to end up in Tasmania's youth justice system, making up 32% of detainees despite being a small fraction of the population. Each Aboriginal child will have a personal cultural plan, access to cultural mentors, and community-led programs in dedicated yarning spaces.

The facility will maintain security while feeling less like a prison. Individual buildings replace cell blocks. Windows look outward instead of inward. The entire approach recognizes that most of these young people have experienced trauma and need support, not just punishment.

Not everyone believes the plan goes far enough. Youth justice advocate Greg Barns argues that detention itself remains the problem, saying resources would be better spent keeping young people in their communities. He worries Tasmania's financial challenges could leave the facility understaffed.

The government is gathering feedback until April before finalizing the model later this year. The facility represents part of a decade-long overhaul of Tasmania's youth justice system, built on expert advice and the experiences of young people who lived through the old approach.

What happens in Pontville could show the rest of Australia a better path forward for young people who've made mistakes but deserve a real chance to change.