Youth detention rates double four years after calls for Don Dale closure

The Territory has recorded a 105 per cent increase in the number of children in juvenile detention, including a steep rise of children younger than 14.

THE Territory has recorded a 105 per cent increase in the number of children in juvenile detention, including a steep rise of children aged between 10 and 14 years.

According to data released by the Office the Children’s Commissioner (OCC), 82 children were remanded or detained in June 2021 compared to 40 in June 2020.

Donna Hunter’s 11-year-old grandson is currently in isolation at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre where she says he has received no access to therapy or education since entering the facility eight days ago.

“You worry for him in there. We have heard stories of what this place is. It is an adult prison with three by two cells and he is in there almost all day,” she said.

Ms Hunter said the grief and strain the system puts on families is “unbearable” and didn’t facilitate healing.

“The sad thing is the government have actually allowed 10-year-olds upwards in the prisons,” she said.

Don Dale

“My thought is many of these kids have pretty hard relationships with their parents and the system has to change, it has to allow for a safe way that kids can talk about that trauma, and with their parents, so everyone can heal.”

Acting Children’s Commissioner Nicole Hicks said four years on from the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children and Young People (2017) several key recommendations were yet to be implemented.

“The Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) repeatedly raised concerns that the NT government’s regressive Youth Justice Reforms of May 2021 would lead to more young people exposed to the criminal justice system,” she said.

Ms Hicks said recent OCC Monitoring Reports into Youth Detention Centres in the NT found staff shortages exacerbated by significant increases in detainees at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre had critically impacted on the centre’s capacity to provide young people with access to basic services such as education and medical services.

Don Dale

“These shortages result in frequent lockdown of young people in their rooms for extended periods of time,” she said.

“The report also found that some young people were left in their cells for up to 23 hours and 45 minutes per day while waiting for required medical assessment.”

However a spokeswoman for Territory Families, Housing and Community said the NT youth detention system was not what it was in 2016.

“We are building a new purpose-built facility in Darwin and refurbishing our Alice Springs facility,” she said.

“When a youth enters detention we make sure they get a medical examination and create a health and sometimes a NDIS plan.”

The department said of the Royal Commission’s 218 recommendations, 152 were complete and 63 were under way.

Don Dale

Families and lawyers gathered outside Don Dale Youth Detention Centre on Friday evening that currently operates out of the Berrimah Prison.

Senior Counsel John Lawrence said in his 30 years as a lawyer he had represented many kids in Don Dale and was appalled by the conditions Territorian children were left in.

Mr Lawrence said instead of looking after “damaged and traumatised kids” the NT government chose to lock them away.

“That (11-year-old) child has ended up in the hands of the law – not a mental health professional,” he announced to protesters.

Mr Lawrence and fellow protesters called for the closure of Don Dale, warning of escalating protests and civil disobedience up to Australia Day.

“We’re not going to request it — we’re going to demand it,” he said. “This is not going to happen in this country, in my town.”

Originally published as Youth detention rates double four years after calls for Don Dale closure