For Jason*, it didn't take long to go from dropping out of school at 15, to drugs.
"I was bored out of my brain. I wasn't working, I wasn't at school," he said.
"I really wasn't doing nothing, you know?"
That vacuum in his life was soon filled.
"I started picking up the heavy drugs, which is like ice, MDMA, Xannies. I started doing oxycodones," he said.
"It was … $500 or a grand a week I was spending. So, you know, what comes of that is that you have to go out and steal."
Numerous criminal convictions followed, including break and enter, assault, and armed robbery. Jason was in a downward spiral. At 17, he spent two months in juvenile detention.
"You start to think about, you know, what am I really doing with my life?"
When Jason had the opportunity to enter a drug rehabilitation program, he took it.
Last year, he enrolled in the Ted Noffs Foundation Program for Adolescent Life Management (PALM) in Sydney. Participants aged 13 to 18 stay up to 90 days in the residential drug and alcohol treatment program.
"I don't want to go down the path that a lot of other people have gone down and they're now serving a lot of long time in custody," Jason said.
And new research shows that Jason's decision to enter the program may have prevented him from following that path and a pipeline to prison.
'Massive reduction' in crime after treatment
A new study published in the Journal of Criminal Justice reveals residential drug treatment can dramatically reduce future criminal convictions for young people like Jason.
Researchers from a consortium of Australian universities examined the criminal history of nearly 900 PALM participants and divided them into three categories: those with a small number of convictions before entering treatment; moderate; and a high trajectory group who had on average more than 10 criminal convictions by the age of 17.
Then, they tracked the young people after treatment and monitored their contact with the justice system for five years.
"It's one of the first studies to examine the longer-term trajectories of young people who've been attending a treatment program for drug and alcohol issues," University of New South Wales social scientist Sally Nathan said.
Researchers had another unique data point at their disposal. There was a comparison group: young people who had been referred to PALM for treatment, but either didn't attend or left within three days of starting the program.
"It's very, very hard to have a comparison group in the area of drug and alcohol treatment for young people," Dr Nathan said.
"Being able to have all of the data for all of the young people who were referred meant that we had a lot of power to look for change."
The study found for adolescents in the high trajectory group — the most likely to become stuck in a life of crime — the reduction in future convictions was profound versus the comparison group.
"The impact … on young people who are on quite an alarming, increasing conviction trajectory had a massive reduction. On average, four less convictions up to five years post-treatment," Ms Nathan said.
Researchers say governments should take note of the hard numbers. Young people on a high trajectory for crime had 36 per cent fewer convictions after residential drug treatment than those who were not treated.
"I think that it's really giving a message to government that investing in treatment ... is a good investment," Ms Nathan said.
"We shouldn't be using detention or just the criminal justice system as a response when these young people have an array of needs.
"One treatment program is a great start. And obviously we're seeing big effects here.
"But we also need to look at what do we do when young people are back in community. How do we support them, their family and their community more broadly?"
'Encouraging' to see experience backed by data
The Ted Noffs Foundation have been running the PALM treatment service for 25 years.
The study's results were no surprise to its chief operating officer Mark Ferry, who said the organisation knew its program made a difference.
"This is what we expected. But, it's also validating to hear the empirical research coming in," he said.
PALM counsellor Hannah Giles, who leads young people in intensive group sessions, said the study results reinforced what she already knew.
"It's so encouraging," she said.
"We don't necessarily see a whole lot of big breakthroughs [during treatment]. But we often hear about kids, months or years later, and they've done really well. And those are just huge celebration moments for us."
In the months since finishing PALM, Jason has had his ups and downs. But he says the strategies he learned in treatment have helped stop him from spiralling again.
"I can say proudly that I'm drug free now … I'm really proud that I'm doing better for myself," he said.
"I learned that if I stick to my word and I stick to what I want to do and I put my mind to something that I can finish it. Like when I put my mind to completing PALM, I finished rehab."
He's now 18 and setting his sights on carpentry. Maybe even his own business.
"Once I've learned enough skills … I'll be able to own my own business and employ people. And that's what I want to do," he said.
Jason's drug addiction and history of criminal behaviour meant he was on a trajectory likely to involve courts and prison. Residential drug treatment may have altered that future.
"I've got a big dream that I want to chase, you know, and PALM helped me do that," he said.
"I'm slowly making steps to become a better person."
*Jason's name has been changed to protect his identity.
