NT Chief Minister rejects calls to debate Don Dale reforms

The Chief Minister has slapped down calls to thrash out issues over youth justice, saying there was “no merit” in debating the future of the Territory’s most infamous prison.

UPDATE JAN 28: THE Chief Minister has slapped down calls to thrash out issues over youth justice, saying there was “no merit” in debating the future of the Territory’s most infamous prison.

Since Christmas Day a group of protesters have staged regular Friday protests outside Berrimah Prison, known as Don Dale, which was currently used to hold youth offenders as young as 10.

Senior Counsel John Lawrence is among the protesters calling for reform to the former adult maximum security wing.

The protests have escalated over the weeks, with latest Survival Day rally drawing more than 150 to the barbed wire barriers of Don Dale looking onto B Block..

Mr Lawrence challenged the Chief Minister and Attorney-General to debate law and order issues and the Territory’s youth justice policy in a public forum.

“The Movement is opposed to the continued detention of damaged and vulnerable Indigenous children in the former notorious Berrimah Prison,” he said.

“It’s now been over four years (since the Royal Commission).

“The situation is scandalous, unlawful and cruel.

“No other State or Territory holds juvenile offenders in such conditions.”

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said there was no point in debating Berrimah, given the use of the former adult maximum security centre was to be phased out.

“There is no merit in debating the future of a facility which will be permanently closed within a year and replaced with a modern, fit-for-purpose youth corrections centre as per the recommendations of the Royal Commission,” Mr Gunner said.

The protesters have called for more than just the review of the Berrmiah blocks, with repeated calls for a therapeutic model of care in the Youth Justice system.

Calls from protesters were backed last week by the Acting Children Commissioner who said the facility was not fit for youth detention.

In response to an open letter to address crime in Alice Springs Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said the police response “can’t be faulted” with the root of the issue based in inequality.

“At the front end they are working critically against a social welfare dependancy challenge that has been in place for decades,” Mr Chalker said.

“(It’s) not in recent years, not in 30 years – for decades.

“And that’s the unfortunate problem.

“If people want to try and raise the issue at the national level, and I think it’s highly appropriate that people start having the conversation about what the true causation is and why the highest warfare dependencies in place in those populations.”

A NT Government spokesman said $229 million is being invested across five years for the implementation of the Royal Commission findings, including a new Darwin centre and Alice Springs Youth refurbishment due to be complete this year.

“We need to make sure the new facility strikes a balance between ensuring it is secure, safe, robust and durable, while meeting the therapeutic and rehabilitative needs of young people sentenced to detention or on remand,” he said.

The NT Government said it had implemented 152 of the 218 Royal Commission recommendations, with 63 underway and three not yet started.

INITIAL JAN 24: AFTER 35 years in the Territory legal system a Darwin barrister is prepared to go to prison over Don Dale.

Senior Counsel John Lawrence said he had watched generations of families wracked by the trauma of being shuttled off to prison – with the children and grandchildren of former clients now coming through the courts.

“The people that have suffered under being a member of the stolen generation have invariably been fractured and injured by the experience,” he said.

“They themselves have taken to alcohol, substance abuse and dependency, (and) their children have witnessed all of this and been brought up in a far from ideal environment as a consequence. So they incur more trauma and then it goes on and on.”

Mr Lawrence said the person who galvanised him into action was an 11-year-old boy, who he watched as he was marched back to his cell.

“He was taken up the slope towards B Block – which I knew only too well from having visited paedophiles and killers in there – and here’s an 11-year-old boy being led up there with a guard.”

“It’s derelict, it’s condemned, its dystopian, its rusting, its crumbling concrete. (And) here’s a boy going into that horror show.”

John Lawerence

“And in looking at that room for a little black kids … for the first time ever since I’ve been working in this zone, the word ‘apartheid’ just came right across me.”

Mr Lawrence said the “deliberate and wilful’ neglect of children was almost designed to break a new generation of Territorians.

“It couldn’t be worse illustrated than by putting an 11-year-old traumatised kid in a cell,” he said.

“We’re doing the worst thing possible for that kid, and if you’re worried about his behaviour and breaking the law then were just making his behaviour worse. It’s clear to me that this could only be done to Aboriginal children. It’s racism writ large.”

Mr Lawrence said following the failure of the Royal Commission to truly reform the system, the only option left was civil disobedience.

Don Dale

“We had a Royal Commission only five years ago that shamed the Northern Territory legal system before the entire world.

“And we just continue as was – if not worse. We’ve realised only too late really that no government will ever really change this horror show – and so now it’s up to us”

“I do know there is a growing group of people who are willing and able and prepared to breach laws in order to have this thing changed.”

A group of protesters have set up regular Friday demonstrations since Christmas Day, which Mr Lawrence warned would escalate in the lead up to Australia Day.