“These legal amendments mean that never again will we see young people in youth detention treated with excessive force and isolated for extended hours, as depicted in the Four Corners Story that led to the Royal Commission.”

• Territory families minister, Dale Wakefield, 10 May 2018

So much for never again.

Less than one year after Wakefield moved the amendments to the Youth Justice Act to protect children in detention, on 24 March 2019 she reversed them with retrospective amendments rammed through parliament with no scrutiny and no consultation.

The minister bypassed normal democratic processes to rush the changes through parliament as quickly – and quietly – as possible. But it is worth examining more closely what the Northern Territory government is doing to some of the most vulnerable, almost exclusively Aboriginal, children in the country.

Use of force and restraints

As the minister said last year, “the use of force can have severe consequences on [children’s] psychological and physical wellbeing, particularly when they are already vulnerable”.

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That’s what makes it so alarming that the NT government has moved amendments to weaken the restrictions on when and how force can be used. They introduced a subjective test, so instead of having a clear, objective test that force can only be used where “all other measures have failed” (as recommended by the royal commission), the person using the force against the child is the one who gets to decide whether or not it’s “reasonable”.

This affords little protection to the child and – contrary to the minister’s talking points – little clarity for the guards about how and when force should be used.

Similarly, the recent changes wind back restrictions on how restraints can be used on a child. The prohibition on using restraints “to maintain good order” of the detention centre has been removed – despite the restriction being a royal commission recommendation. The week after the amendments were rushed through parliament, lawyers reported children being brought to standard legal visits in handcuffs and waist belts.

Isolation

Isolation is one of the most dangerous, damaging, insidious parts of the youth justice system. Testimony from children about its devastating impact on them featured heavily in the royal commission. Children reported wanting to die and to hurt themselves when held in isolation.

Last month, the minister inserted a new section into the Youth Justice Act to allow for separation (another term for isolation) to be used during lockdowns, emergency situations or “any other circumstance prescribed by regulations”.

This is a significant weakening of the protections in place for these kids.

Over the last 12 months we have heard reports of children being locked down in their cells for days on end due to staff shortages in Alice Springs and incidents at Don Dale. The changes to the legislation now allow for these kids to be locked in their cells so long as Territory families can justify the lockdown period as “reasonable and necessary”.

Transfers

Perhaps the most alarming change to the Youth Justice Act for young people in the Centre is the ease with which they can now be moved hundreds of kilometres north against their wishes, against their parents’ wishes and against medical and legal advice.

The vast majority of children in detention in the NT are from the centre (usually between 75% and 80%).

However, the Alice Springs youth detention centre has a capacity of only 18. It has a single classroom that can only accommodate 16. It has no therapeutic spaces. Programs are limited.

The government has no plans to replace the Alice Springs detention centre despite it being shockingly unsuitable to house vulnerable children with complex needs and too small to accommodate the number of children who are regularly remanded or sentenced there. That means children are routinely transferred to Darwin – despite their families living in Alice Springs – because guards are unable to manage them in the substandard facilities.

The changes to the legislation allow for the superintendent to decide whether to transfer a child from Alice Springs to Darwin. The associated policy determinations have been changed to weaken requirements to consult with family and legal professionals before transfers, resulting sometimes in children being sent 1,500km away without Territory families even telling their parents.

Why would the government do this?

A hint may be in the fact that the amendments are retrospective. That means the changes apply as if they had been law for the last 12 months. The most obvious reason why a government may want to apply a new law retrospectively is to protect itself against any civil claims children might have against the government for mistreatment over the last year.

Wakefield said in parliament that these amendments “will avoid debates with lawyers about technical issues and will enable us to focus on our jobs of rehabilitating young people”.

She is wrong. They won’t avoid debates, and no one is getting rehabilitated in these substandard, understaffed and unfit detention centres.

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Call me cynical, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the NT government has rammed through these changes, folded under pressure from the business community and withdrawn its plans for the new Don Dale site, and failed to implement reforms to raise the age of criminal responsibility all in the lead up to a May 2019 federal election and an August 2020 territory election.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the chief minister, Michael Gunner, announced his reforms to fix the NT budget so he can “continue investing in … tackling crime” or that the Northern Territory has always had appallingly low levels of Aboriginal enrolment.

The safety and wellbeing of children in detention should be of concern to us all. It matters because these are children who are in the care of the government, and they have a duty of care to treat these children with decency and humanity. It should matter to those who are concerned about reducing crime in our communities – because I promise you no rehabilitation is taking place in the Don Dale or Alice Springs facilities. And it should matter that all but one child in detention in the Northern Territory is Aboriginal.

Many Australians watched the Four Corners expose on youth detention in the Northern Territory and said “never again”.

It is looking very likely that those abuses are going to keep happening again, and again and again unless we collectively demand something different of the government.

• Sophie Trevitt is a lawyer based in Alice Springs working for an Aboriginal legal aid service. These are her personal views.

• Comments on this article have been pre-moderated to ensure the discussion is on the topics that have been written about in the article.