Policy for dealing with youth crime among Aboriginal children labelled ‘inhumane, costly and does not work’

All children now in detention in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal, according to data from the families department, prompting calls for reform of the justice system.

In response to questioning at an NT estimates hearing late last week, the department confirmed that “as of today, 100% of the children in detention are Aboriginal. The proportions have not changed since the royal commission.”

“There are 17 young people in Don Dale Youth detention centre and 21 in Alice Springs. Four of those in Don Dale are from the centre, two from Alice Springs and two from Tennant Creek,” the deputy chief executive of operations for the department, Jeanette Kerr, told the committee. “In terms of Indigenous children, they are all Indigenous.”

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There are now 38 young people in detention in the NT. Between 35% and 37% are from Darwin and Alice Springs, 9% are from Tennant Creek and the rest are from across the territory.

In response to the recommendations of the Don Dale royal commission, the NT government says it has allocated $71.4m to rebuild Don Dale and Alice Springs youth detention centres, but only $9.9m over four years “to divert young people from crime and stop future offending”.

Under its “Safe, thriving and connected: generational change for children and families” plan, the NT government also set aside $22.9m over four years to “improve youth detention operations and reduce recidivism”.

In a statement read to the committee, the member for Nhulunbuy, Yingiya Mark Guyula, said: “The royal commission provided evidence that the ways that the Balanda [white] system treats Aboriginal children is inhumane, costly and does not work.”

“In my electorate of Nhulunbuy, we want to see our elders in control of raypirri – or discipline – for our young people. We want troubled young people out on homelands with oversight from elders, and access to education from our people and through the school system.

“The problem is, this requires a genuine partnership between government and Yolngu leaders, with funding to assist our young people.”

NT’s families minister, Dale Wakefield, told the committee: “It is an area that we are going to need to continue to develop.

“I think it is probably going to look different from place to place. Whilst the member for Nhulunbuy has a very strong vision for what happens on Yolngu land, I think that will look very different on Warlpiri land.

“We need to make sure ... that local communities can make decisions around the ways they want to respond to young people who are not meeting community expectations in terms of their behaviour.”