Do we want to punish some of the most vulnerable young people in the community, or do we want to reduce re-offending? The Northern Territory’s proposed youth justice reforms suggest the former.
The Northern Territory is the only Australian jurisdiction where the media can identify juvenile offenders. The government now wants to end the practice.
Lucy Hughes Jones/AAP
Open justice is in contest with other rights as the Northern Territory considers a bill to ban the media from juvenile court cases.
The detail of the government’s reforms remains elusive four months after commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda handed down their final report.
AAP
The Don Dale royal commission’s capacity to make lasting change lies with the government implementing its recommendations.
To improve on a building like the Don Dale centre, design that properly considers human behaviour needs to take priority for its replacement.
Neda Vanovac/AAP
Architecture can affect behaviour and the choices we make. The brief is out for a centre to replace the Don Dale facility, but word is, it’s ‘a disgrace’. We can do much better.
Concerns have been raised about whether Australia adequately protects human rights given multiple reports of abuses, including mistreatment of juvenile detainees.
AAP/Lucy Hughes Jones
Australia is the only democratic nation in the world without a national charter of rights or similar.
The royal commission has heard evidence from more than 60 witnesses, including those in youth detention in the Northern Territory.
AAP/Lucy Hughes Jones
The NT youth justice royal commission’s interim report did not deliver any findings or make any recommendations. Nor did it reflect young people’s personal stories.
Riots have hit youth detention centres in both Australia and the US.
AAP
Australian jurisdictions should enact permanent solutions to juvenile justice crises that replace large and ineffective youth prisons with a safer, more decent alternative.
Policymakers are reluctant to acknowledge the care system is producing criminals.
AAP/Neda Vanovac
Brexit, Trump, terrorism, 18C, safe schools, the gay marriage plebiscite, a government with a wafer-thin majority and a fractious Senate: it has been quite a year in politics.
The ABC’s Four Corners program revealed dismaying scenes of detainee abuse from the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.
AAP/Four Corners
What’s shocking about the treatment of detainees in youth detention is not so much the treatment of those vulnerable people, but that it is happening in a wealthy country like Australia.
Adam Giles’ Country Liberal Party expected at least two terms in government in the Northern Territory when it won office in 2012.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Leaked incident reports from the Nauru detention centre affirm what has been known for a long time: detention is no place for children, and we need alternatives to offshore processing.
Across Australia, Indigenous children constitute at least 54% of children in juvenile detention centres.
AAP/Neda Vanovac
What the Northern Territory’s experience with state interventions reveals is that rather than protecting young people, it has placed them at greater risk of mistreatment and trauma.
Rather than assisting in prevention and allowing children to mature out of offending, juvenile detention does the opposite.
AAP/Neda Vanovac
Important questions are being asked about why children were abused in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory. But we also need to ask why children are being detained at all.
The royal commission into the Northern Territory's youth detention and child protection systems has had a shaky start.
Brian Martin (centre) resigned as royal commissioner following perceived conflicts of interest relating to his and his daughter’s former roles.
AAP/Andrew Taylor
Less than a week after being named royal commissioner to investigate the Northern Territory child detention and protection systems, Brian Martin has quit, citing criticisms of his appointment.