The South Australian Guardian for Children and Young People has reaffirmed her desire to see the state raise the age of criminal responsibility, after the release of a new publication sharing the voices of children and young people in detention.

Shona Reid, who combines her role as the Guardian with Training Centre Visitor (which promotes and protects the rights of children and young people detained at Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre) authored From Those Who Know.

Submitted to the SA government, Ms Reid said the publication offered up the "direct words" of young people incarcerated, speaking out about "what's gone wrong in their lives, what they need and what would work going forward".

"Every day, we see news stories and hear adults talking about 'youth crime' and their views on the problems and solutions – what is missing from these conversations is the views and perspectives of the actual people who are going through the youth justice system themselves," Ms Reid said.

Currently the age of criminal responsibility in SA is set at ten, allowing children at primary school to be charged by police and incarcerated.

In January, the SA government was criticised by Indigenous and Human Rights groups for only "considering" raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12, despite an Advisory Commission into Incarceration Rates of Aboriginal People - set up by the government - explicitly recommending the age be raised to 14.

Change the Record's co-chair, Cheryl Axleby, said at the time: "Children will continue to experience significant harm and trauma while the South Australian government makes no tangible commitments to raise the age to 14 and continues to criminalise 10- and 11-year-olds for certain behaviours."

Ms Reid said she acknowledged and welcomed that planning was underway to raise the age to 12 - understanding it was an "important first step" - but said she would continue to advocate for it be raised to 14 — "urgently, and with no exceptions".

"My experience and advice from national and international experts have led me to believe that 14 is too young for any child to be in court or locked up in cell," she said.

"Any day that a child can be spared from criminal justice processes is one more day we are able to support them, guide them and create a safer community for everyone."

Ms Reid said her discussions with children included them talking about "their bad decisions and its impact on others," as well as growing up "with no one to care or be there for them".

"Some talked about this as something they have been missing from the day they were born," she said.

In the report, confronting language, and testimony from 27 children interviewed paints a picture of the troubling and morally contentious nature of incarcerating children.

"They lock disability kids up in here, bro," one child interviewed said. "It's shameful."

Another child, recounting their first time in court said: "I remember crying when I got put in handcuffs, cause (sic) I didn't know what was happening. And then I thought I was going to, like, go to where the movies are, and get like flogged and stuff, like how you see it in the movies."

Children described the boredom in cells, some spending more than 18 hours a day inside them.

Another child noted: "Every time I been in there [the cell], there's been this guy that just yells and yells and yells, just all the entire time. And I was trying to go to sleep for so long, but I just couldn't. And I was in there for like 8 hours. Just like, sitting there."

On an average day in 2021–22, in South Australia, over 47 per cent of children incarcerated we Indigenous, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous children.

On an average day over the same period, 87 per cent of children in detention were unsentenced.

Ms Reid said the voices and children were "direct and clear," and they are speaking to adults in their lives who have the power and ability to change things.

"While we're off arguing about money and laws and whose job it is, the young people are telling us what needs to change," she said.

"Their solutions are far more sensible and less expensive than all the places and laws we build to keep them locked up."

Ms Reid said children incarcerated at a young age did not help them, did not teach a lesson, and did not rehabilitate them.

"Rather it made things worse," she said.

This correlates with numerous human rights and legal groups who have argued early access to the justice system only exacerbates recidivism in the long-term, further harming the community.

"They [the children] said that they need people to be there for them when they make mistakes; they need safe places to go; they need safe people to be with," Ms Reid said.

"The children and young people have spoken, and it is now on our government to dig deep and find the humility to listen, and the courage to give their ideas a try."

In a submission to the state government, Ms Reid was critical of the new model proposed by the government in February, labelling it a "failed attempt at compromise."

"It announces a plan that purports to remove children under 12 years from the criminal justice system, without giving up current government power to use coercive methods and physical force to control children who need help," she said.

On Monday, Ms Reid said the model introduced the risk of a host of unintended consequences that will only impact children negatively, labelling it "frankly bizarre."

"It still lets police lock children in cells, it still funnels children into court processes and it still allows those courts to send children to detention," she said.

"So, I have to ask, what's in it for the kids? And how will this make our community safer?