We are exploring work to deliver a strategic purpose and model of care for the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre. This includes a proposed strategic purpose focusing on a therapeutic approach.

To inform this work, we are also assessing existing international and Australian models of care to build an evidence-based model for Bimberi that will deliver best practice and is fit for purpose in the ACT.

We are in the early stages of this work.

A key first step was a forum held in June 2026, which brought together community and government organisations to discuss what a contemporary youth detention model of care should look like in the ACT.

The insights from the forum are now being considered alongside evidence, research and youth justice approaches from other jurisdictions to inform our next steps in developing the right model of care for the ACT.

We will share our active engagements and other activities here as they open.

On 29 June 2026, the ACT Government and the ACT National Preventive Mechanism hosted a forum to begin developing a strategic purpose and model of care for youth detention in the ACT.

The forum brought together 45 participants from 30 community and government organisations. Participants heard about successful approaches from Australia and overseas and shared ideas on how young people in detention can be better supported.

You can read documents from the forum:

• Background paper
• The First Week at Bimberi - Experience, Practice and Opportunity
• The throughcare model
• Listening Report: Youth Justice Throughcare Model.

A listening report from the forum will be released shortly.

We are currently focused on bringing together the insights from the forum. We will also look at other evidence from reviews, research and experiences of other jurisdictions.

This will help inform next steps and will consider further engagement and codesign activity to ensure a broad range of perspectives and the views and experiences of those most impacted can continue to be considered.

Further updates will be shared on this page as work progresses.

The Bimberi Youth Justice Centre is the ACT’s only detention centre for young people. Detention is a last resort. Young people are in Bimberi for one of these reasons:

• They have been arrested by the police and refused bail.
• They have been remanded by a court.
• They have been sentenced to a period of detention by the ACT’s Childrens Court or Supreme Court.
• They have been transferred from another state or territory’s youth justice system.

In January 2025, the Inspector of Custodial Services released the Healthy Centre Review of Bimberi Youth Justice Centre 2024. The purpose of the review was to assess Bimberi’s performance against the ACT Standards for Youth Detention Places.

The review identified 15 recommendations. One recommendation is the need for a clearly defined strategic purpose and model of care to guide decision-making and service delivery. It found that a clearly defined framework is essential to supporting consistent, therapeutic and rights-based care. Providing a clear purpose and model for Bimberi will help staff deliver the best possible outcomes for young people while contributing to community safety.

In September 2025, the ACT Government agreed to develop a strategic purpose and model of care for Bimberi in response to the review’s recommendation.

To inform this work, the ACT Government is looking at evidence and best practice youth justice models from Australia and overseas, including Spain's Diagrama model and Scotland's secure care system.

This work is one of the first steps in the ACT's broader youth justice reform agenda and is part of future actions under the draft ACT Youth Justice Strategic Plan.