While the Northern Territory intervention continues to dominate reporting of Aboriginal affairs, the shocking number of young Aborigines in NSW Prisons is all but ignored.
There are nine juvenile justice centres in NSW holding around 400 offenders — more than half are Aboriginal.
Despite making up only 2.2 per cent of the NSW population in the 2006 census, aboriginals now make up almost 60 per cent of all juvenile inmates, according to the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice.
The proportion of Aboriginal youth in detention has always been high, but in the last 15 years it has almost doubled, up from 27.8 per cent of all inmates in 1993 to 56.3 in 2008.
In June this year the Government tried to keep confidential a Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research report, showing that the overall juvenile remand population in NSW grew by 32 per cent — from an average of 181 a day in 2007 to 239 a day in 2008.
In response, the NSW Government announced last month an inquiry into why NSW has more juvenile offenders locked up than any other state or territory, but it will not examine why so many are Aboriginal. A previous 2005 inquiry into the NSW Juvenile Justice system led to the creation of the Aboriginal Justice Plan to deal with the continuing over-representation of Aboriginal people in NSW prisons, however the latest figures would suggest that plan has failed.
The NSW Aboriginal Legal Service and other organisations have called for the inquiry to examine why aboriginal people are so disproportionately represented in juvenile detention, but so far the Government has ruled out any investigation based on race.
Speaking about the inquiry NSW Juvenile Justice Minister Graham West acknowledged problems with the number of youth in the system, but only from a general point of view, making no admission there is an issue with Aboriginal youth. NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos has also refused to acknowledge the failure of Government policy in stemming the growing influx of aboriginal youth into NSW Prisons.
“Offenders are prosecuted and sentenced equally before the law in NSW and we make no apology for working hard to address juvenile crime,” he said when asked about the figures on Aboriginal youth in detention.
NSW Greens MLC and indigenous spokeswoman Sylvia Hale said the Government was more interested in appearances than solutions when it came to dealing with difficult issues. Hale blamed punitive bail and sentencing laws introduced in 2007 during one the State Governments routine “get tough on crime” campaigns for the high number of aboriginal youth in detention.
According to Hale, the law systemically discriminates against Aboriginal young people and entrenches aboriginal disadvantage.
Hatzistergos, who claimed, “the law makes no distinctions on the basis of race”, rejected this.
Common belief(in my opinion) is that young indigenous offenders get an easy ride..I don’t know,but if this is true then 60% is on the low side..hope it’s not.
May I suggest that you use a capital “A” for Aboriginal for a start?
Of course there are more Aboriginal people in gaols. Politicians are obsessed with law and order because voters believe that more police and more gaols will make them safer. It is self destructive but it always wins votes. It does nothing ‘to help those who are disadvantaged. Disadvantage breeds disadvantage. Those who live with poverty, hopelessness, inferior education opportunities and facilities, unsympathetic teachers, lack of parental ambition, low self esteem, lack of family routine, shame, humiliation, unsafe and/or unclean homes, poor nutrition, insufficient sleep, lack of privacy, poor dental care, skin disease, impaired hearing, unsuitable clothing, embarrassing domestic arrangements and lack social skills are hardly likely to do brilliantly at school and therefore have poor career and life style choices and opportunities. So why try? Only the extreme exception will get through this unscarred. We are spending too much money on law and order and not enough on addressing the disadvantage of children. Disadvantage must be addressed before the birth of the child. We cannot expect parents to be competent at parenting when they themselves have been subjected to disadvantage all their lives.
I am worried about those young people who are being sent off to work on a cattle station as an alternative to gaol time – is it another cheap labour for graziers gimmick? There are some people who are obsessed with having cheap servants and justify their actions by claiming that it is giving career opportunities. Their only career opportunity is being cheap labour.
Gratton, you take pomposity to new heights. Lay off Mr Burton-Bradley for his minor stylistic mistakes. You overlook the fact that he has actually contributed a useful, informative article on an important topic. He may not be as erudite as you, but he doesn’t claim to be a saviour, or imply he has all the answers.
You are correct, some people are scarred by all these things; but you can’t then just NOT EXPECT these people to behave well, as the alternative is to expect that they will misbehave, and to convey to them that their misbehaviour is only to be expected, thus removing some of the motivation they might feel to try to rectify the situation themselves. Of course, they can’t do this all by themselves, or at least not many can; but it is a pre-requisite for change that people believe that change is possible and necessary.
We may not expect these parents to be fully competent at parenting, but we do have to let them know that we expect them to at least have a go at it. You seem more worried that a grazier might get some cheap labour (a far fetched notion if you knew anything about the operation of these projects at a number of sites in recent years) than you care about actually getting some sensible and constructive things happening in the lives of these kids in the here and now.
Perhaps a starting point would be to look at what are the “reasons” for Aboriginal youth in detention. See what crimes are prevalent and then we may be able to understand why. I suggest that many Aboriginal kids are in custody for traffic matters/license matters. It is very hard to get a license these days even when your family is all working and you have a car and the literacy skills to read and pass tests. Then of course there is the DIARY that has to be completed.
Mr Wilson,
I appreciate your interest in the story.
However I’d like to point out that I consider the word Aboriginal a proper noun.
It appears Crikey’s style has a different take and has edited the story accordingly.
May I suggest you take this up with Crikey if it’s an issue for you.
Regards,
Robert Burton-Bradley