Justice for JuviesJustice for Juvies
All In The Mind
Criminal lawyer Sarah Hopkins' novel The Subjects is about the overcriminalisation and overmedicalisation of young people—and her innovative ideas for youth justice. The protagonist, Daniel, is 16-years-old and has just arrived at a Juvie delinquent centre—but there’s no medication and he doesn’t have to stay. Then he gets the eerie sense that he’s part of an experiment.
29:05•7 Jul 2019
Justice for Juvies: Sarah Hopkins on Youth, Trauma and a System in Crisis
Episode Overview
- Many young people are punished by the courts for behaviour that, in a family home, would be treated as ordinary acting out rather than crime.
- Children in the justice system often face complex trauma, unstable housing, school exclusion, mental health issues and serious drug and alcohol problems, yet receive custody instead of support.
- Psychiatric diagnoses can help in court and in treatment, but Hopkins argues they are incomplete without assessing the person’s living conditions and underlying experiences.
- Justice reinvestment aims to shift resources from prisons into community-based early intervention, using local data to address the roots of offending.
- Community-led strategies in Bourke focus on growing children up “safe, smart and strong”, with early childhood support, youth programmes and a focus on healing from racism and discrimination.
“"I see young people like Daniel and like Rachel and like Alex as such valuable human beings."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation heads into the courts and detention centres, asking what really happens to young people whose lives are marked by trauma, drugs, alcohol and crime. Host Lynne Malcolm talks with criminal lawyer and novelist Sarah Hopkins, whose book *The Subjects* grew out of two decades representing young people at the Aboriginal Legal Service in New South Wales.
Part interview, part reading, the episode blends fictional scenes from 16‑year‑old Daniel’s time in a mysterious outback facility with real stories of courts, custody and community projects. You’ll hear how everyday “bad behaviour” for kids in stable homes, like throwing a plate or stealing from the kitchen, becomes a criminal charge for children in out‑of‑home care.
Hopkins explains that many of her clients arrived in court with serious “drug and alcohol problems”, untreated trauma and mental health diagnoses, yet the system’s main response was prison. As she puts it, courts often miss “what was really going on with some of these kids”. The discussion digs into over‑medicalisation as well: diagnoses such as ADHD or oppositional defiance can help in sentencing, but Hopkins argues they mean little without looking at “the living condition” behind the label.
She raises ethical questions about medication, big pharma and who becomes the subject of social experiments. For anyone interested in addiction, youth justice, mental health or prevention rather than punishment, the segment on justice reinvestment in the town of Bourke stands out. Hopkins outlines a practical, community‑driven attempt to shift money away from prisons and into early support for families.
This episode suits people curious about how law, psychiatry and community action intersect, and anyone who’s ever wondered whether earlier care and connection could keep vulnerable young people away from long‑term drug use, alcohol harm and incarceration. It might leave you asking: what would it take to treat kids like Daniel as “valuable human beings” instead of future inmates?
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