Indigenous children make up 96% of kids in NT youth justice system: AIHW report

THE NT still has the highest rate of youth incarceration in the country, as a new government report reveals 96 per cent of all NT kids under youth justice supervision are indigenous

THE Northern Territory still has the highest rate of youth incarceration in the country, as a new government report reveals 96 per cent of all NT kids under youth justice supervision are indigenous.

The new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data revealed 61 out of every 10,000 Territorian children aged 10 to 17 are under community-based supervision or in youth detention on any given day.

Of those, 96 per cent are indigenous even though they make up 44 per cent of the NT’s population.

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Don Dale Youth Detention centre is one of two youth detention centres in the NT. Picture Glenn Campbell

Alice Springs-based lawyer Russell Goldflam said at first glance the data makes it look as though there has been no significant reduction of children entering the youth justice system in the last four years despite the Royal Commission into juvenile detention.

But Mr Goldflam said the data, which captures 2018/19, doesn’t reflect a “significant drop” in detention rates reflected in the latter half of last year and there hadn’t been enough time to measure the impacts of programs put in place to assist at risk youth.

The most common age at which non-indigenous children come into contact with the youth justice system is around the age of 15 or 16, while indigenous children are commonly aged 13 or 14.

Mr Goldflam said the “quite striking disparity” appeared to show police were more “assertive” in policing young indigenous people than they were everybody else.

“It seems inherently unlikley that because you’re black you’re more criminal at a younger age than you would be if you weren’t indigenous,” he said.

96 per cent of children under youth justice supervision in the NT are indigenous. If jailed, they could end up at the Don Dale Youth Detention centre in Darwin. Picture: Glenn Campbell

The jurisdiction with the next highest rate of child incarceration is Queensland, where 32 out of every 10,000 kids are under supervision.

Children in the NT spend an average of 28 weeks, or seven months, under supervision during the year.

More than 75 per cent of children in youth prisons are on remand or waiting to be sentenced.

North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency principal legal officer David Woodroffe said the data revealed the ongoing “very troubling concerns” of indigenous youth within the justice system.

He said authorities needed to address the underlying health issues, mainly behavioural and cognitive conditions like Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder, that led to youth offending.

“It’s really important the youth justice system provides tailored approaches to the health needs of children,” Mr Woodroffe said.

The data comes after Amnesty International this week slammed NT Police for transporting children in caged paddy wagons.

Mr Woodroffe described it as an example of “old practices and old ways of thinking”.