On Friday, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory handed down its final report after 15 months, $54 million, 54 days of hearings, over 200 witnesses and 12 case studies.
The investigation by commissioners Margaret White AO and Mick Gooda found that all detention centres in the Northern Territory operated in the same manner as adult prisons, caused trauma to the children and did not have any rehabilitative programs.
The evidence presented during the hearings was that children were (and still are) subjected to verbal and physical abuse, humiliation and isolation for long periods of time, in addition to the denial of basic human needs such as access to water, food and the use of toilet facilities. Staff were found to either be untrained and not know the rules, or flagrantly ignore the rules and break the law.
Numerous witnesses and children gave evidence to this effect and it was accepted within the hearing that these were not isolated or one-off incidents but rather an endemic problem within youth detention in the Northern Territory. This was a problem that was known by government officials and intentionally ignored.
One of the case studies, of course, is that of Dylan Voller — the young man at the centre of Four Corners footage of abuse that occurred in Don Dale Detention Centre where children alleged to have been “rioting” (according to guards) were seen clearly in the footage to be in their own cells and were then set upon by guards and subjected to violence, tear gas and expletive-filled denigration.
At the commission hearing, Dylan gave testimony about his treatment in various facilities during his detention periods, which first started at the age of 10 (experts said that he was failed by the system from the outset).
A particularly dehumanising method of punishing children in detention was, as Dylan recalled during testimony, the way guards would inhibit the detained children’s access to toileting facilities.
“There was one instance where I was in an isolation placement at Alice Springs detention centre and I was busting to go to the toilet … I had been asking for at least four or five hours. They’d just been saying ‘no’. I ended up having to defecate into a pillow case because they wouldn’t let me out to go to the toilet. Eventually when I got let out the next morning, I was able to chuck that pillow case out.”
The report was unequivocal in stating that every level of the government and relevant authorities and institutions within the Northern Territory have failed children — particularly over-represented Indigenous children — and made a number of reform recommendations. These included:
- the immediate closure of Don Dale Detention Centre and High Security Unit;
- raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12 (currently 10);
- enacting a policy in which no child under 14 should be detained unless there are exceptional circumstances; and
- a number of other policy-level reforms intended to provide familial support and increase diversionary and therapeutic programs.
Of course, the accounts provided to the commission by victims and witnesses and the subsequent recommendations are not novel; we have heard this before and we continue to agitate for justice for our Indigenous children. The footage from Four Corners was simply so sensational that the government was compelled to announce a royal commission to address the claims made in the program.
However, we are not strangers to royal commissions and subsequent recommendations. Our government has a habit of spending tax-payer dollars on royal commissions that ultimately tender reports that sit on a shelf and result in little, if any, action to address the recommended reforms.
Though the report does give credence to the many families of the Northern Territory who have been calling for change for decades and addresses the injustice that disproportionately affects Indigenous youth, we are no closer to a reduction of the trauma to our children caught up in the system. Following the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody — there were 39 recommendations and the majority of them were ignored — we continue to have Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Australia is very good at announcing royal commissions but woeful at taking legitimate action to address the systemic problems that lead to the abuse and trauma of Indigenous people — particularly children.
“damning recommendations must be acted on”
Hardly likely given our Human Rights record!
Any government can build infrastructure. Whether it be ‘on the cheap’ and therefore likely to form the next cornerstone of the next media exposure of the next (Don Dale) scandal or; a fully fit for purpose facility supportive of both inmate and staff needs. The R.C. recommendation for smaller (twelve inmate) facilities is on the right track. But it is not of itself ‘the answer’, merely part there-of.
Both CLP and Labor, more than happy for political and budgetary gain to demonize juvenile inmates given it met an uninformed public and very aware Treasury priorities. But to do so in the full knowledge that the two greatest threats to achieving a fully functional retraining, rehabilitative correctional facility could not be delivered without those threats first being attended to; was unforgivable.
The failure of Don Dale was predictable and inevitable. Every politician and department head knew it to be so. They knew that adult Correctional Services cultural mores were the antithesis of retraining and rehabilitation. They knew, that in employing, essentially on the cheap a fully, effectively untrained casual workforce, guaranteed that when the music stopped, it would be ‘dark.’
So now we have a new future proofed plan. Or do we? By itself, no matter how well built, fit for purpose infrastructure is; it is of itself powerless to provide community (and all of the traumatised citizens who have suffered assault, or pillage) the security, or retribution so desired. Smaller facilities must still be staffed. Smaller facilities become close knit, protective. The two greatest threats identified above remain.
Young, ‘off the rails’ Territorians must not be detained for punishment, rather re-education, firm and fair . . . if not, then by all means accept incarceration is purely a preparation . . .
Any word on why the kids and social cohort are so remarkably dysfunctional?
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…
Good question AR. Having worked with dysfunctional youth over decades (and by that I mean from confused, resentful, alienated, violent thru to capital offence offenders) in community; am of the view generic classification serves little purpose. It is at the individual level where identification, need and behavioural causation has meaning. Deprivation; real or imagined often present. Peer relations, again real or imagined another. Biology. Key responses; consistency, reliability over extended term. More years than months.
I am sorry, I do not believe the 10 and 11 year olds who broke into my boss’s house 3 times (same ones) stealing stuff did not know they were doing wrong. A different way of dealing with them yes, but today we see an 11 year old form WA on a murder charge. I live in a town with a huge theft and domestic violence rate. 10, 11,12,13,14 year olds assault the elderly and nothing happens. they smash schools, same deal. Something must happen and that something cannot be oh no they cannot be charged. It may be a different justice system but what is proposed here is an injustice system. I believe in prevention, not ignoring.
It is not that juveniles cannot be charged OGO but how come intercession mostly occurs after the event. i.e. when an offence or behavioural indicators advise intervention is warranted. Effectively, officialdom does not invest until after the fact. Police, Courts, Probation, Incarceration, Parole etc
The pathway is covered in eggshells. Indigenous offender rates being but one. But the big one is political exploitation and their preferred investment; too late, and at the least effect point in the intervention cycle.