ABC News Story featuring Jared Sharp – Law & Justice Manager
The NT Government has named the former superintendent of Long Bay jail, Michael Vita, to run its review of juvenile detention.
The move came as the NT’s Aboriginal legal service called for urgent changes to the youth justice regime in the NT, pointing out that the territory’s juvenile detention rate was six times the national average.
“We incarcerate young people at rates almost unseen anywhere else in the world,” said North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) spokesman Jared Sharpe.
Attorney-General John Elferink said the review would focus on youth detention and not broader questions of youth justice.
“The review we are conducting is a review into the policy and procedures that we will put in to place in the detention facility for juveniles that we are going to move into the old medium security section of the Berrimah prison,” he said.
But Mr Elferink said he did not see the need for a more comprehensive inquiry into the entire juvenile justice system, which had been proposed by legal groups and the Children’s Commissioner.
“I have spoken to the Children’s Commissioner about this and he has said to me he wanted to focus on matters of custody,” he said.
“I would invite him to give as much information as he would like to give to the review that we are doing as a government but he does have the power under his own legislation to commence an inquiry and if he see’s fit to do so nothing is stopping him.
“Nothing is stopping him from doing that and I certainly won’t try.
“We already have independent people who come into all of our custodial facilities and they do it quite regularly and we have the Children’s Commissioner himself.”
Mr Vita, who is currently the general manager of the Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre near Campbelltown in Western Sydney, managed Sydney’s Long Bay jail for 21 years and oversaw the expansion and redevelopment of the Villawood Detention Centre.
International standards for juvenile detention needed: lawyers
The NT Bar Association, NAAJA and the Children’s Commissioner have argued for an inquiry into the entire juvenile justice system.
Bar Association president John Lawrence said the inquiry was needed to monitor detention facilities where children were kept to ensure that national and international standards were followed.
“They all apply to Australian jurisdictions,” he said.
“There are national and international standards that need to be followed by our government.”
Mr Sharpe, from NAAJA, said while Aboriginal people made up 30 per cent of the Territory population they accounted for 98 per cent of people in juvenile detention.
The official visitors program was not an effective way to monitor what happened in juvenile detention, he said.
“What the Northern Territory really needs is an independent custodial inspector that has unfettered access to prisons and youth detention centres and can see what is actually being provided,” he said.
Mr Sharp welcomed the Children’s Commissioner’s inquiry.
“But it does raise the question as to why there is a separate youth detention inquiry that has just been announced,” he said.
“NAAJA is concerned about issues like isolation and kids being put in isolation for long periods of time. And lockdowns, kids locked in cells for up to 23 hours per day.”
Inquiry would go deeper than review: Children’s Commissioner
The Children’s Commissioner Howard Bath said there was a big difference between a review and the kind of inquiry that was required.
“An inquiry is a much bigger exercise, first of all it starts off with very clear and specific terms of reference so that the public knows exactly what is being looked at,” he said.
“People who are doing an inquiry usually have a broader range of powers they have powers to obtain documentation, for instance, if there are surveillance videos they have power to get that, they have powers sometimes to compel witness to provide information.
“They have powers to invite public submissions and to protect the interests of the public if there was a whistleblower to ensure they are protected in the work place.”
He said the use of tear gas against a group of teenage detainees needed to be investigated closely.
“I think we also need a focus on what has actually happened, what were the events for instance, leading up to and following the extraordinary incidents on 21st of August this year,” he said.
“Soon after those events of 21st of August I announced or confirmed I would be doing an investigation. Having looked at the issues I decided that an inquiry was needed and made that recommendation to the Minister.”
The commissioner said he had still to be convinced that moving juvenile offenders to the old Berrimah jail was a good idea.
“It was time to move away from the Don Dale facility,” he said.
“I have reservations about then moving into the older infrastructure that’s involved in the Berrimah jail. I do have concerns moving youth into an adult correctional facility.
“We know we have far more kids in detention per head of population than any other jurisdiction.
“I think it is critical, everyone of those young people in the youth justice facilities will shortly be back into the community we want to ensure those young people come back into the community inspired and with a look at the future.
“We don’t want them to come back into the community embittered and angry.”