Australia’s youth detention system punishes kids but fails to rehabilitate them

The punitive approach of our youth detention system serves only narrow, short-term political thinking, he writes Dr Jacqueline Rule.

Prisons, including those for young offenders, focus on punishment for crimes. The punishment for evil actions does not need to be said. But there is another fundamental purpose of incarceration, especially when it comes to children.

Youth detention centers in particular are intended to be places of consequence and rehabilitation; A chance to turn the lives of troubled children around. Not least because the vast majority of children incarcerated in Australia are already disadvantaged before entering the system. Many have physical or mental disabilities, and many are exposed to significant hardship and instability, such as homelessness, poverty, trauma or abuse.

First Nations youth, who may have experienced significant intergenerational family trauma in light of Australia’s past brutal child removal practices, are disproportionately overrepresented in both our youth and adult prison systems, in addition to the contemporary out-of-home care system.

Theoretically, rehabilitation is a recognized legal goal in sentencing that aims to address root cause issues and reshape the offender’s mindset and actions in a way that makes them want to: “to give up that they have done wrong” and that they can reintegrate into society.In reality, it is difficult to see how this statutory aim of rehabilitation can be achieved in practice in the light of Australia’s current youth justice framework.

The narrow punitive approach of our youth detention system merely reflects short-term and reactionary political thinking, without providing the kind of rehabilitation services that would truly help children incarcerated in prisons; causing maximum pain and aggravated trauma. It is unreasonable to believe that a system can be rehabilitated without providing support services and resources that can help children work through the cycles of trauma, loss, displacement or abuse that may have contributed to them entering ‘juvenile care’ in the first place.

But this infrastructure is largely absent from our youth prisons, according to a former detainee at Tasmania’s notorious Ashley Detention Centre. observe HE:

“…[t]“There is no therapeutic help here… no counseling, no therapy, no nothing.”

There is a disconnect between the state’s rhetoric of rehabilitation and the dysfunctional environment in youth detention centres, which are nothing but rehabilitation. These ‘centers’ in their current form are dull and inhumane spaces, devoid of basic dignity. Poor conditions, overcrowding, systemic racism, and a lack of robust education and support services set the stage for nightmarish events and abuses of power.

very poisonous environments These areas, which are likened to “gladiator pits” and “battlefields”, harm rehabilitation. The increasing overuse of solitary confinement for long periods of time for young people is compounding the harm, and the human rights abuses that occurred at Don Dale in the Northern Territory, Banksia Hill in Perth or the Ashley detention center in Tasmania could easily happen again.

without regard growing Given concerns about the effectiveness of detention and the ability to actually be rehabilitated, the State continues to persist with the same old approach. For example, despite allegations of sexual abuse, serious physical abuse and false imprisonment by former prisoners at Ashley detention centre, the Government’s plans to permanently close Ashley have stalled once again and the facility will now remain open until at least 2028.

Youth prisons are also secret areas, far removed from external surveillance and essentially invisible to the outside world. Significantly, the government recently denied the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention access to the infamous Unit 18 at Casuarina Prison and also restricted their access to the Banksia Hill youth detention centre.

In addition to shutting down international inspection, the state clearly does not want the Australian public to see inside these walls. Maybe because it is the people’s own (wasted) taxpayer dollars that continue to fund this flawed and inhumane system; research shows that: imprisonment The daily cost of a single child is approximately $3,320, which equates to approximately $1.12 million per child per year.

What is the point of an environment that intensifies the risk of acute mental and physical harm to children who are already indirectly punished by the system for their disadvantaged situation? How will the government’s tough-on-crime jargon change the mindset of young criminals and make society safer?

Actually it is not like that. Instead, our current youth justice system further entrenches disadvantages and places children in difficult circumstances to ride a lifelong merry-go-round of recidivism. From young prisonersbaby teeth”, juvenile offenders can be turned into full-fledged criminals through a detention system that appears primarily geared towards producing more adults. criminals.

Regardless of differing political views on youth justice, it is unreasonable to continue pouring money into an unnecessary detention system that does not benefit society by reducing recidivism rates. At the very least, directing financial resources towards practical initiatives such as therapeutic support services in youth prisons, greater investment in crime prevention programs in the community, and increased post-release support for young detainees would provide more effective results.

Without significant systemic reform, our youth detention centers will continue to fail the critical task of rehabilitation. The change in approach is not only needed but also ridiculously overdue. The government’s reliance on and continued investment in a broken youth incarceration system leaves Australia far behind other international jurisdictions, including Scotland and Scandinavia, that are successfully tackling youth justice and its underlying causes.

Repairing the system itself in a big-picture sense will require a holistic legal rethinking and prioritizing rehabilitation as the primary goal of youth incarceration, and designing infrastructure around this principle and implementing it in practice.

If we can take this step forward, Australia’s youth detention centers can begin to do the real rehabilitation work that prisons aim for. In the process, it will make communities safer in a way that punishment alone cannot.

Dr Jacqueline Rule is an Australian novelist with a background in ‘Law and Literature’. He was admitted as a solicitor in NSW and spent several years supporting a specialist legal committee dealing with youth detention in the criminal justice system.

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