This article contains information about the violence experienced by First Nations youth in the Australian prison system. There are mentions of racist terms, and this piece also mentions self-harm, trauma, and suicide.
The ABC Four Corners report “locking up the kids” detailed the horrific conditions for Aboriginal youth in the juvenile justice system in Western Australia.
The report was nothing new. In 2016, Four corners detailed the brutalization of Aboriginal people at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Juvenile Detention Center, in his episode “Australia’s Shame”. Also in 2016, International Amnesty detailed the abuse children received in Queensland juvenile detention centres.
Children must play, swim, run and explore life. They don’t belong behind bars. However, on any given day in 2020-21, an average of 4,695 youths were jailed in Australia. Most of the incarcerated youths are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in WA 6.7% of the population, represent more than 70% of young people locked up in Perth’s Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre.
The reasons So many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are detained are related to the impacts of colonization, such as intergenerational trauma, ongoing racism, discrimination, and unresolved issues related to self-determination.
The Four Corners documentary alleged that detained children were subjected to abuse, torture, solitary confinement and other degrading treatment such as “bending”, which involves bending a person’s legs behind them before sitting on them; we saw a grown man sitting on the legs of a child. this way in the documentary.
The documentary also found that Aboriginal youth were more likely to be placed in solitary confinement, which left the youth feeling powerless. Racism was also used as a form of abuse, with security calling the young detainees apes and monkeys. One of the youths detained at Banksia Hill said that the treatment he received made him consider taking his own life.
How does incarceration impact the mental health of young people?
Many youth enter juvenile detention with pre-existing neurocognitive deficits (such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder), trauma and poor mental health. More than 80% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in a Queensland detention center reported mental health problems.
Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing revealed that more than 30% of youth detained were survivors of abuse or neglect. Instead of supporting the most vulnerable within our community, the Australian justice system is traumatized incarceration and often young people with developmental problems.
Research has shown that pre-existing mental health problems are likely to be exacerbated by experiences during incarceration, such as isolation, boredom, and victimization.
This inhumane treatment provokes a re-traumatization of the effects of colonization and racism, with feelings of despairuselessness and low self-esteem.
Juvenile detention is also associated with a increased risk suicide, psychiatric disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse.
Lock up young people during their pivotal years development also has long-term impacts. These include poor emotional development, poor educational outcomes, and poorer mental health. in adulthood. As adults, the aboriginal and post-liberation Torres Strait Islander peoples are ten times more likely to die than the general population, with suicide being the leading cause of death.
You don’t have to look far to see the devastating effects of incarceration on mental health. Just last year, there was 320 reports self-harm at Banksia Hill, WA’s only juvenile detention facility.
Locking up children increases the probability of recidivism
The incarceration of young offenders is also associated with future offensive behaviors Y continuous contact with the justice system.
Without proper rehabilitation and support after release, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth often return to the same conditions that the criminal patterns created in the first place.
Earlier this year, the director of the Perth Juvenile Court, Judge Hylton Quail condemned the treatment of a young man detained at Banksia Hill, stating:
When you treat a damaged child like an animal, he will behave like an animal. […] When you want to make a monster, this is how you do it.
What to do?
There must be a substantial change in the way young people who come into contact with the justice system are treated. We need governments to commit, under bridging the gapto the change of the whole system through:
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recognizing children should not be criminalized at the age of ten. the raise the age campaign calls for the minimum age of responsibility to be raised to 14 years. Early prevention and intervention approaches are needed here. Children who are at risk of offending must be given adequate support to reduce pathways to delinquency.
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an approach that addresses why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth are required to be locked up in such large numbers, driven by the respective First Nations communities. This means investing in housing, health, education, transportation and other essential services and crucial aspects of a person’s life. An example of this is found in a pilot program in New South Wales called Redefining Reinvestmentwhich addressed the social determinants of incarceration from a community approach.
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future solutions must be trauma-informed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read more:
Criminal legal system fails to dispense justice to First Nations peoples, says new book
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not born criminals. They are born into systems that fail them, into a country that too often turns a blind eye before locking them away.
The Australian Government must work with First Nations communities to ensure the safety and well-being of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including our future generations.
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