Chief Minister and community leaders respond to calls to close Don Dale
Chief Minister defends calls to close Don Dale while an expert has proposed a new site. Read the debate about the Territory’s notorious youth detention centre here.
Northern Territory
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There are calls to house youth offenders in the now defunct Howard Springs quarantine facility as the Chief Minister doubles down on the NT government’s stance on Don Dale.
Aboriginal Medical Alliance Services NT chief executive John Paterson raised using the facility, 27km from the Darwin CBD, as an interim measure before the new detention centre was built.
Office of the Children’s Commission data showed it cost almost $70,000 per child on remand for an average of 21 days, or about $3313 a day.
Dr Paterson said Aboriginal health services could use this money to address the psychiatric and disability needs of children in detention.
He said using Howard Springs would remove children from being kept in the same cells that once housed murderers and pedophiles when it was an adult prison.
It comes just days after the NT News exclusively reported on a series of letters sent by Acting Children’s Commissioner Nicole Hucks to the Territory Government, claiming Don Dale could be in breach of the Youth Justice Act.
However, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles rejected those claims, saying the facility was being maintained while a new “purpose-built” detention centre was under construction.
“There’s been an enormous amount of work at that Don Dale facility,” she said.
“I visited it, I was one of the first ministers to visit it when we were elected in 2016.
“It is a very different facility today.”
At Don Dale I saw conditions that breach every Human Rights Convention of the Child. We need to act now. The Children’s Commissioner found a 400 per cent increase in self harm incidents, if that is not enough to act I am not sure what is. @DanilaDilba@AMSANTaus@NAAJA_NTpic.twitter.com/gamwnZ6DHe
— NTCOSS (@NTCOSS) September 14, 2022
A letter sent to Ms Fyles from Ms Hucks said the facility had deteriorated since October, 2021.
The government is seeking tenders for completion of electrical and fire protection works designed to ensure the facility complies with a NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services fire safety report.
When asked if she believed the facility was safe to hold children as young as 10, Ms Fyles said: “There has been an enormous change to Don Dale since we came to government. There has been investment in that facility to ensure it is safe.”
“But what I do agree (with) is that we need a purpose-built facility and that is what we are doing,” Ms Fyles said.
Territory Families will spend more than $55m on the new youth detention centre next to the existing Holtze adult prison in Darwin, which Ms Fyles said would open in 2023.
“People expect governments to snap their fingers and make those changes. It is long, grinding hard work,” Ms Fyles said.
A recently released therapeutic model of care states up to 75 per cent of youth justice system detainees presented with one or more psychiatric disorders.
Developmental and intellectual disorders are also widespread, with most youth in custody expected to have at least one neurodevelopmental impairment, the plan said.
Ms Fyles noted the presence of the Aboriginal health service Danila Dilba within Don Dale as crucial to supporting children in detention, almost all of whom were Aboriginal.
However, Danila Dilba has previously said its contract was to provide primary care services such as general practice and not long-term disability or psychiatric care.
Dr Paterson called for Don Dale’s immediate closure, suggesting children in detention could be moved to Howard Springs.
The Aboriginal Medical Alliance Services NT chief executive claimed Territory Families was in “gross breach” of its duty of care, adding the “incidence of self-harm and attempted suicide have reached terrifying and unacceptable levels”.
“Families of child prisoners are terrified,’ he said.
Dr Paterson said some 11-year-old children were kept in isolation and this compounded their psychological trauma.
“I just want to put (this) into perspective,” he said.
“This is an old adult male prison – it housed murderers, paedophiles and other major serious criminals in the very location where the government is now housing these kids.
“This virtually guarantees upon release they will return to criminal conduct.”
In June, Attorney-General Chansey Paech said the Northern Territory would raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12.
“Our Government has committed to this, although I welcome the opportunity for discussions around developing a nationally-consistent age of criminal responsibility.”
However, the NT News understands not all of caucus supports the motion.
At a media conference on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison said she supported the “government’s position”.
“And we’ve made some pretty firm public commitments around that,” Ms Manison said.
Originally published as Chief Minister and community leaders respond to calls to close Don Dale
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