Sebastien Riou aims to tackle high recidivism rates for prisoners

At just 17, Sebastien Riou had an opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald on October, 9 calling for prison reform.

Sebastien heard lots of politicians talk about being tough on crime but not many of them spoke about recidivism.

"If you look at the stats, it's crazy - 40 per cent of adult re-offend within 12 months of being released, and it's 64 per cent for child offenders," he said.

He said adults who didn't get a prison sentence were much less likely to re-offend.

"For adults, recidivism is only 20 per cent for people who get other punishments, [such as] community service or bail," he said.

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"This shows us the prison system is not doing what we hope it to do. It's not working the way it should."

His passion and knowledge for prison reform came from his experience at YMCA Youth Parliament. This year, during his second time participating in youth parliament, he took on the role of shadow minister for justice.

Through that experience, he learnt about the prison system and was shocked by the data.

"We did a lot of research, looked at lots of government sources. We looked at how prisons operate in other countries and how they operate here," he said.

"Before that, I had no idea how any of it worked."

Sebastien has almost finished his HSC and hopes to study law and journalism at the University of Wollongong.

"I've always been interested in politics, debating and public speaking," he said.

"It's a great experience, it's not just debating bills, you get to hang out with all these young people as passionate as you are about all these different issues."