Gunner government’s proposed new youth bail laws seriously flawed

The Gunner government’s proposed new youth bail laws are nothing but a bandaid fix when a more holistic approach is needed to address the Territory’s crime problem, writes NT News court reporter SARAH MATTHEWS.

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WORKING as a court reporter in the Northern Territory means that every day is different.

However, from my very first day on the job, there is one thing that hasn’t changed at all.

Sitting in the Darwin courts every single day I watch Indigenous people, one after the other, be led out from the cells and into the dock.

Their alleged crimes are various – ranging from driving without a licence, stealing, through to alcohol-fuelled violence.

Sometimes the defendants’ families, often including their young children, travel for thousands of kilometres to see them – even just for a minute through the glass.

Sometimes they are completely alone. Sometimes they barely speak English. Sometimes they are as young as 10.

And all too often, they find themselves coming back to that same dock again and again and again.

One of the biggest stains on this place that I love and call home is its colossal over representation of incarcerated Indigenous people.

And the judges and lawyers who see these people returning to the courts time and time again have first-hand proof of one thing – throwing people in jail does not stop them from offending.

Often it has the exact opposite effect. And, this is exacerbated exponentially if incarceration starts in childhood.

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Which is why the NT government’s proposed youth bail laws have devastated so many of the Territory’s lawyers, social workers, youth workers, health workers and Indigenous rights activists.

These people, who work on the front lines, know that in almost every case where a child goes off the rails, there are other factors at play.

Alcohol addiction without the resources to seek help, inadequate housing or poverty, poor education and isolation which reduces opportunities and serious and often untreated mental health issues are just some of the things that can land a child in the back of a paddy wagon. And then in a jail cell.

These laws would mean that for a huge list of “prescribed offences”, judges will be forced to put kids behind bars as a first resort.

And then the cycle of lifelong institutionalisation begins.

And with around 99 per cent of the kids in custody in the NT being Indigenous, this is going to pummel the community that is already so devastated by it.

The Territory suffers from a colossal over-representation of incarcerated Indigenous people. Picture: iStock

This cycle is not the fault of any one individual or entity.

I think most would agree that all the judges, defence lawyers, prosecutors and police officers who face this devastating reality every day are doing their absolute best with what they have – a serious lack of resources and a system that was not set up to benefit Indigenous people. In fact, some would argue the system directly works against the best interests of Indigenous people.

In any case, the system does not work. It has not ever worked. Which is why these new measures just don’t make sense.

The evidence and the experts say that programs which address the causes of crime are what actually work. These solutions take time. Complex social issues are not solved overnight and subsequent NT governments have only done their constituents a disservice by fooling them into thinking they can be.

With the Labor Party being re-elected just last August, they actually have the time to put in place some long-term solutions which will tackle the causes of crime at the root.

This new policy is nothing but a bandaid fix, and it’s a bandaid which will grow weaker and thinner with time as the gaping wound it is trying to cover only continues to grow.

Sarah Matthews is an NT News court reporter