By Fergus Hunter
The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre will be shut down within three months and sweeping changes made to address "shocking and systemic failures" in the Northern Territory's youth justice system after a landmark royal commission.
The final report of the royal commission into NT child detention and protection declared the system had long failed to rehabilitate children, protect human rights and comply with relevant laws, saying the problems "occurred over many years and were known and ignored at the highest levels".
Handed down 15 months after the royal commission was established to deal with shocking revelations out of the Don Dale facility, the report has also recommended the creation of a new children's court and that the age of criminal responsibility be lifted from 10 to 12, which would be a first in Australia.
The commissioners said no child under the age of 14 should be in detention unless convicted of a serious and violent crime and posing a genuine risk to the community. They found the use of force and isolation should be limited while tear gas and "spit hoods" – famously used on 17-year-old Dylan Voller – must be banned.
ABC's Four Corners expose showed youths being restrained in mechanical chairs.Credit: ABC
The commission received approximately 480 witness statements and heard from more than 200 witnesses, including 24 "vulnerable witnesses", including Voller.
"The failures we have identified have cost children and families greatly, they have not made communities safer and they are shocking," commissioners Mick Gooda and Margaret White said.
Youth detention centres were "not fit for accommodating, let alone rehabilitating, children and young people" and subjected them to verbal abuse, physical control and humiliation, the commission said. They were denied access to basic human needs and "dared or bribed to carry out degrading and humiliating acts, or to commit acts of violence on each other".
The Don Dale Detention Centre that featured in the Four Corners July 2016 broadcast which triggered the commission was closed in 2014, but the current facility bearing the same name still subjected people to "harsh conditions and extended periods locked in their rooms", the report said.
Commissioners Mick Gooda and Margaret White during their tour of the current Don Dale Youth Detention facilities.Credit: Elise Derwin
The commissioners said inappropriate and punitive use of isolation was inconsistent with the law and causing "lasting psychological damage" in some cases.
"Senior executives and the management and staff at the detention centres implemented and/or maintained and/or tolerated a detention system seemingly intent on 'breaking' rather than 'rehabilitating' the children and young people in their care," the report said.
The 2000-page report, spread over six volumes, details how 4898 strip searches were conducted over eight years at the current and former Don Dale facilities, with contraband found on only 29 occasions. It recommended alternatives such as body scanners, metal detectors or pat-down searches be investigated.
Mr Gooda said the evidence had led the commission to "dark places" and he urged action, warning the system could not sustain the ongoing human and financial cost. Among the more than 200 recommendations, the commission has called for wholesale change across the child protection and youth justice systems.
According to analysis performed for the commission, $335 million could be saved over a decade if all the recommendations are put in place.
NT chief minister Michael Gunner promised to act to make his jurisdiction "safer, smarter, more compassionate" and work in partnership with communities and the federal government, which he said was an essential part of the solution.
"It will live as a stain on the reputation of the Northern Territory," Mr Gunner said, apologising to the people affected.
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said young people in the system "cannot any longer be dismissed as broken" and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the recommendations had "wider implications" for the whole country.
Eighty-nine per cent of the minors in out-of-home care are Aboriginal as are 94 per cent of those in detention. The commission recommended a suite of measures, including improved engagement with community groups, to address the disproportionate figures.
The National Congress of Australia's First Peoples said early intervention, diversion and rehabilitation must be the priorities in the justice system.
"Governments must embrace Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led community controlled solutions. Equally, there needs to be guaranteed long-term investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to ensure they are sufficiently resourced to build the capacity to work with government," co-chair Rod Little said.
Antoinette Braybrook, co-chair of the Change the Record coalition, said the "most concrete way" the federal government could help would be to bring justice targets into the Council of Australian Governments Closing the Gap strategy and develop a national action plan on youth justice.
Pat Turner, chief executive of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, called on the Turnbull government to properly fund services.
"You don't set up a royal commission and then walk away from its recommendations," Ms Turner said.
Key recommendations
1. Close Don Dale Youth Centre (and report progress on this by February 2018) and replace with a new, purpose-built facility.
2. Immediately close the high security unit at Don Dale.
3. Raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 .
4. No child under 14 to be ordered to serve detention unless they have been convicted of a serious and violent crime, present a serious risk to the community and their sentence is approved by the head of the proposed new children's court.
5. Set up a new Children's Court.
6. Set up a specialist youth division within the police force and make sure all police cells are suitable for detaining children.
7. Establish a Commission for Children and Young People, with jurisdiction for all children and young people in the NT.
8. Stop the use of tear gas and continue to ban spit hoods and the restraint chair.
9. Set up at least 20 family support centres to help children and their families.
10. Develop a 10 year strategy for generational change around child protection and the prevention of harm to children. This would be led by the NT chief minister with specific targets and measures.
- with Judith Ireland