This article incorporates info on violence skilled by First Nations younger folks within the Australian carceral system. There are mentions of racist phrases, and this piece additionally mentions self hurt, trauma and suicide.
The ABC Four Corners report “Locking up Kids” detailed the horrific circumstances for younger Aboriginal folks within the juvenile justice system in Western Australia.
The report was nothing new. In 2016, Four Corners detailed the brutalisation of Aboriginal folks within the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, in its episode “Australia’s Shame”. Also in 2016, Amnesty International detailed the abuse youngsters had been receiving in Queensland’s juvenile detention amenities.
Children ought to be taking part in, swimming, operating and exploring life. They don’t belong behind bars. Yet, on any given day in 2020-21, a mean of 4,695 younger folks had been incarcerated in Australia. Most of the younger folks incarcerated are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
Despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander younger folks in WA making up simply 6.7% of the inhabitants, they account for greater than 70% of youth locked up in Perth’s Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre.
The causes so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are detained are linked to the impacts of colonisation, corresponding to intergenerational trauma, ongoing racism, discrimination, and unresolved points associated to self-determination.
Read extra:
Raising the age of prison accountability is just a primary step. First Nations youngsters want cultural options
The Four Corners documentary alleged youngsters in detention had been uncovered to abuse, torture, solitary confinement and different degrading remedy corresponding to “folding”, which includes bending an individual’s legs behind them earlier than sitting on them – we noticed a grown man sitting on a toddler’s legs on this approach within the documentary.
The documentary additionally discovered Aboriginal younger folks had been extra more likely to be held in solitary confinement, resulting in the younger folks feeling helpless. Racism was additionally used as a type of abuse, with safety calling the younger detainees apes and monkeys. One of the younger males detained at Banksia Hill expressed the remedy he obtained made him take into account taking his personal life.
How does incarceration influence younger folks’s psychological well being?
Many younger folks enter youth detention with pre-existing neurocognitive impairments (corresponding to foetal alcohol spectrum dysfunction), trauma, and poor psychological well being. More than 80% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander younger folks in a Queensland detention centre reported psychological well being issues.
Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed that greater than 30% of younger folks in detention had been survivors of abuse or neglect. Rather than supporting essentially the most weak inside our group, the Australian justice system is imprisoning traumatised and infrequently developmentally compromised younger folks.
Research has proven pre-existing psychological well being issues are possible exacerbated by experiences throughout incarceration, corresponding to isolation, boredom and victimisation.
This inhumane remedy brings about retraumatisation of the results of colonisation and racism, with emotions of hopelessness, worthlessness and low shallowness.
Youth detention can also be related to an elevated threat of suicide, psychiatric issues, and drug and alcohol abuse.
Locking younger folks up throughout their essential years of growth additionally has long-term impacts. These embody poor emotional growth, poor training outcomes, and worse psychological well being in maturity. As adults, post-release Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are ten occasions extra more likely to die than the overall inhabitants, with suicide the main reason behind loss of life.
You don’t need to look far to see the devastating impacts of incarceration on psychological well being. Just final yr, there have been 320 studies of self-harm at Banksia Hill, WA’s solely youth detention centre.
Read extra:
Reunifying First Nations households: the one technique to cut back the overrepresentation of kids in out-of-home care
Locking up youngsters will increase the chance of reoffending
Imprisoning younger offenders can also be related to future offending behaviours and continued contact with the justice system.
Without correct rehabilitation and assist post-release, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander younger peoples usually return to the identical circumstances that created the patterns of offending within the first place.
Earlier this yr, the pinnacle of Perth Children’s Court, Judge Hylton Quail condemned the remedy of a teenager in detention at Banksia Hill, stating:
When you deal with a broken little one like an animal, they’ll behave like an animal […] When you need to make a monster, that is the way you do it.
What must be finished?
There must be substantive change in how younger individuals who are available contact with the justice system are handled. We want governments to commit, beneath Closing the Gap, to whole-of-system change by means of:
recognising youngsters shouldn’t be criminalised at ten years previous. The Raise the Age marketing campaign is looking for the minimal age of accountability to be raised to 14. Early prevention and intervention approaches are crucial right here. Children who’re vulnerable to offending ought to be appropriately supported, to cut back pathways to offending.
an method addressing why younger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are locked up in such nice numbers is required, pushed by respective First Nations communities. This means investing in housing, well being, training, transport and different important providers and essential points of an individual’s life. An instance of that is present in a pilot program in New South Wales known as Redefining Reinvestment, which tackled the social determinants of incarceration utilizing a group method.
future options should be trauma-informed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read extra:
The prison authorized system doesn’t ship justice for First Nations folks, says a brand new guide
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youngsters aren’t born criminals. They are born into techniques that fail them, in a rustic that each one too usually turns a blind eye earlier than locking them up.
The Australian authorities must work with First Nations communities to make sure the security and wellbeing of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, together with our future generations.
If this text has brought on misery, please contact certainly one of these helplines:
13yarn,
Lifeline,
Headspace
Summer May Finlay receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She can also be a member of the Labor social gathering, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Public Health Association of Australia. Sumer is the Deputy Chair of Thirilli and Co-chair of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW.
Ee Pin Chang receives funding from Suicide Prevention Australia, and Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research on the WA Department of Justice.
Jemma Collova receives funding from the Australian Department of Health.
Pat Dudgeon receives funding from the Australian Department of Health. She is the Director of the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention and lead Chief Investigator on a NHMRC Million Minds Mission Grant. She is the chair and member of the Australian Indigenous Psychologist’s Association, and sits on the board of Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Australia.
