The notorious Don Dale will close in 12 months and new facility next to Holtze will house territory kids

A new multimillion dollar site will replace the notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. The NT News reveals more information about the $73m project.

The existing Don Dale Youth Detention Centre will be closed in 2023, six years after a royal commission declared it “wholly inappropriate”.

On Tuesday, Territory Families Minister Kate Worden announced Darwin Youth Detention Centre was likely to open by July 2023 some months later than originally expected.

The redeveloped site, 31km from Darwin, is next to Holtze Adult Correctional facility.

The decision to put it there came despite the Royal Commission in to the Protection and Detention of Children recommending the new “purpose-built facility” should not be next to an adult prison.

“What’s really important about these new centres is the model of care which will assist us to deliver all of the programs in a therapeutic way, that best serves young people that are in our Youth Justice systems to choose a better path,” Ms Worden said.

“We are continuing to implement all the recommendations from the Royal Commission and this facility will be a big part of it.”

An artist’s new Darwin Youth Detention Facility. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

The new facility will have 44 beds – 40 permanent beds plus four transitional beds.

“Let me be very clear. We have not reached that figure previously,” Ms Worden said.

“I’m very confident we have the programs in place and we have a very large emphasis on keeping young people out of the detention system.”

Territory Families youth detention census data published on its own website shows in May numbers averaged 45.4 per day while on January 18, there were 49 children detained in the defunct adult prison called Don Dale.

Ms Worden promised the new facility would work in synchronicity with a therapeutic model of care recently released.

“It will be a world-class facility once it is built, it will enable us to have the right programs, the right staff …,” she said.

“We know that we need more Aboriginal staff in these centres, so the model of care tells us all of those things.’

Territory Families acting executive director Sasha Dennis said the model of care would be the department’s “operating philosophy”.

“Our model of care is also very clear around the quality and level of training that our staff will receive while they are in this environment.”

A chronic staff shortage at Don Dale has meant when Youth Justice Officers (YJOs) escort young people to court the centre is often put into lockdown.

However, Ms Worden said new teleservices at the facility would mean young people would no longer need to leave detention to appear in court.

When asked if the Territory government would have been better to spend money on acute mental health beds for young people Ms Worden reiterated her party’s commitment to close Don Dale.

“We made a commitment through the Royal Commission recommendation that we would invest $73m in a facility such as this,” she said.

The NT News understands Labor made a party resolution at their recent conference to ensure Don Dale would be closed within 12 months.

The timeline of the implementation of changes to youth justice in the NT, as part of Territory Families finalised version of the Northern Territory Youth Detention Centres Model of Care from May, 2022.

“We are delivering on that commitment, but what I can say is this facility has been built in accordance with best practice, it has been informed by the very experts in the health sector, it has been informed by those in the education sector.

“This place will have a strong focus on education programs.”

Protestors outside the new Darwin Youth Detention Facility. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

An Aunty of an 11-year-old currently in Don Dale and activists protested outside the construction site.

The Aunty said many Aboriginal people did not want the new facility and wanted their children out of Don Dale.

“They’re still incarcerating children in that hazardous waste,” she said.

“This government and (Ms) Warden refuses to listen, she refuses to listen to the black voices and the people that worked in the system for over 20 years.”

“It breaks my heart that I’ve spent 20 years in the system and we’ve got nowhere.”

Ms Worden, however, said she had considered an interim alternative to Don Dale but was told it would take just as long to “retrofit” the facility as it would to build the new one.