This is me from around the age when I could have been incarcerated in WA. From age 10, kids that look like I did (although they usually have much darker skin) are sent to jail, sometimes if they're innocent awaiting trial, because of a total failure of our justice system.

A failure of our courts.

A failure of our government.

And frankly, dear reader, a failure of you.

I'll start by acknowledging that for a kid to end up in the youth justice system, there's clearly issues at home or they may have inherited mental impairments like FASD, or both. There's no denying that a child isn't born a monster, that something has happened to them where their criminality becomes so bad that they are locked up away from society.

When it comes to the aforementioned failures, let's start with that 'locked up' part.

In WA, the sentencing options are strict and the Perth Children's Court has very few diversionary options available to it. Yet despite the President of the Court recently coming out condemning the treatment that occurs at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, there has largely been silence on what other sentencing options the Court would prefer to see.

So the Court sends these kids to Banksia Hill. In WA, a child could be charged with an offence and then put inside to await trial if the state considers that the arrangements at home are unsafe. Innocent children, aged 10-17, can be locked up to await their future. Once they're in there, they're in a cell for up to 23 hours a day without support or rehabilitation programs.

These programs don't exist because in yet another failure in our justice system the government hasn't invested in them. I'm not knocking the Labor Party alone here, this is a pox on all our houses.

Government's past and present have not had the political will to significantly invest in early diversion options. That moment where the offences are minor and the right intervention at the right time, can change the course of the young person's life for good, forever.

The compounding inaction by government has meant that there are now 300+ kids on track to becoming hardened adult criminals. For years now, government should have been spending much more money on diversionary, therapeutic options like the Kath French Secure Care Centre in Perth's eastern hills. For the vast number of Aboriginal kids locked up, we could have been seeing culturally safe and familiar rehabilitation programs.

If WA had put in place prioritised diversionary systems at the first sign of offending, if government had a more rehabilitation-focused justice approach, then three things are for sure:

1. There would be fewer kids in jail
2. Those kids wouldn’t be coming out of jail even more damaged than when they went in
3. Our community would be safer long-term

Politically speaking though, 'therapeutic intervention' isn't sexy. Building jails is.

No voter wants the baddies to sit down, hold hands and sing Kum Ba Yah, they want them in jail! Keep those monsters away from us!

And so we've arrived at failure number three: you and I.

Be honest here: until recently when did you really care about kids locked in jail?

Rarely, if ever, right?

Same. During the election I may have hugged the homeless but not even my bleeding heart would had gone down the path of caring about kids in jail.

Now we know better. We now know we're collectively facing a crisis and so the next question is a bit more critical:

What are you going to do now to help solve this problem?

These kids have been failed by everyone: their family, their village, their government and the courts.

You and I can't keep contributing to that failure.

If you're reading this, chances are you understand the complexity of this issue. It's time you did something about that. Talk to your state Member of Parliament. Lean in and support organisations like Social Reinvestment WA. Speak up about why this is important to you.

I look back on that photo at the top of this yarn and I know there is no way kids that age are monsters. They're damaged but they can be saved. The time is now to make this right, for you to be part of that, or else there's every chance we'll lose these kids forever.

• Zak Kirkup is of Yamatji heritage and is the former leader of the Liberal Party in Western Australia