Child Law Report: Abuse of Children in Youth Detention Centers

This report, addressed to the Minister for Correctional Services in the Northern Territory, details the routine abuse of children within the region's youth detention centers. Drawing on the author's experience as a social worker and referencing media reports and TV programs, the report highlights the inhumane treatment of young detainees, including solitary confinement, lack of access to basic necessities, and physical abuse. It argues that such practices violate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and other international conventions. The report emphasizes the need to replace punitive approaches with therapeutic and rehabilitative models, address the trauma experienced by young people, and integrate cultural considerations into youth justice proceedings. Recommendations are provided to improve conditions and ensure compliance with human rights standards within the youth justice system, aiming to shift the focus from punishment to rehabilitation.

Running head: CHILD LAW
Child Law
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CHILD LAW
To
Minister for Correctional devices
Department of Correctional Services
Northern Territory
From
Xxxxxxxx
Northern Territory
Contact Details: xxx xx xxx
Re: Abuse of children in detained in Youth detention centers
Respected Sir/Ma’am,
This is to draw your attention towards the routine abuse of children who are detained in the youth
detention centers in the Northern Territory. I work as a social worker in the Northern Territory and is
associated with the Correctional services that is provided to the juveniles. It is astounding to believe that
in Australia, children as young as 13 are locked up in solitary confinement and children who are 10 years
old are locked up in the prisons.
The youth justice system of the country is a set of processes that manages young people and children who
are alleged to have committed an offence. When the police investigate the crime alleged to have been
committed by the young children, they are introduced to the youth justice system for the first time. The
course of legal action that could be undertaken by the police includes court actions and non-court actions
such as counseling, cautions or infringement notices.
It is a well-known fact that the youth justice system in Australia is based on the concept that detention for
young people should be the last resort for all the young people and this concept is consistent with the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the United Nation High
Commissioner for Human Rights 1985, 1989). The significant feature of the youth justice system is
supervision of the young people either within the community or within the detention facilities1.
The UNCRC stipulates that young people should be detained and deprived of their liberty as a last resort 2.
However, in practice; children are confined to an isolation wing where they do not have any access to
running water or sunlight. The cells are ghastly and seemed to be from the medieval era. Further, the wide
publication of the CCTV footage and the images that revealed the abuse the children were being subject
to routinely, while they are detained in the youth detention centers. The treatment that was provided to the
detainees, who were 10 to 13 years of age, amounts to a breach of the human rights.
In supporting this argument, I have learned about the issues that the young children are facing within the
youth justice system from other media articles, TV Programs that have witnessed such abuse and
violation of the human rights of the detainees. The Australian TV program, Four Corners, from the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation presented a report on the barbaric treatment that the children in the
Don Dale Detention Centre undergo while in detention. The images published along with the report defy
belief but subjects the detainees to inhuman treatment.
1 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
2 United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights 1985, 1989.

2CHILD LAW
The Don Dale Detention Centre had six boys who were being held in the isolation wing. The counselor
for these young offenders asserted that although there was sign of life in the detention centers but the
lawyers had no knowledge who was in there and for how long the children were being held in such
isolation wing. The Four Corner made revelation about the unexpected truth about the children behind the
bars. The children are assaulted, stripped naked and tear-gassed. The children had nowhere to run and
were death-scared. The treatment was inhuman, cruel and if any person would have treated their own
children that way, the authorities would have taken the children from such person on grounds of cruelty.
The images reveal that the youth justice system of Australia which was based on the concept that the
children shall be deprived of liberty as a last resort, has become a system that punishes the young
offenders instead of rehabilitating them by locking up 10 years old children and by keeping the 13 year
olds in a solitary confinement3. The primary relevant conventions related to the juvenile justice in
Australia are the UNCRC, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Convention
Against Torture (CAT) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)4. In the
presence of such clear legal framework that stipulates human rights of children within the juvenile justice
system should be respected, the question that arises is to what extent Australia does complies with these
legal rights in practice5.
As per the reports published in The Conversation, after the wide publication of the report and images of
the barbaric treatment that is provided to the detainees, a Royal Commission to investigate into the
conditions of the juveniles within the Youth Justice System in the Northern Territory. In the report by the
Four Corners, the juveniles were being detained in the isolator wings for 23 and half hours a day and most
of the boys have lost all sense of time. The cells are extremely hot, no air-conditioning, no fans no light.
If the boys ask for the reasons or the date or time, the officers use tear gas on them. They are often
shackled, dragged and sprayed with a fire hose in the name of the applying reasonable force to prevent the
juveniles from acting violently.
I being a social worker would like to make some recommendations, which would assist the department in
improving the conditions of the detention centers. The youth justice system must replace the punitive
approach with other youth justice models that promotes therapeutic and rehabilitative approach. The
Department of Youth Justice System, must make significant efforts to identify and respond to the issues
faced by the victims and the trauma that the young people undergo within the youth justice system.
Cultural considerations should be entrenched at all stages of youth justice proceedings. These
recommendations would enable the Department to reinstate the concept that lays down the foundation of
the Youth Justice System, that is, to rehabilitate the young children instead of subjecting them to inhuman
treatment violating their human rights.
3 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
4 Convention Against Torture (CAT).
5 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

3CHILD LAW
Reference list
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC.
United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights 1985, 1989.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Convention Against Torture (CAT).
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
Overview. (2017). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved 10 September 2017, from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-statistics/health-welfare-services/youth-justice/overview
AUSTRALIA'S SHAME - Four Corners. (2017). Abc.net.au. Retrieved 10 September 2017, from
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm
Australia could alleviate its youth justice crisis by importing the right ideas from the US. (2017). The
Conversation. Retrieved 10 September 2017, from https://theconversation.com/australia-could-
alleviate-its-youth-justice-crisis-by-importing-the-right-ideas-from-the-us-74535
Youth Justice | SAGE Publications Australia. (2017). Au.sagepub.com. Retrieved 10 September 2017,
from https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/journal/youth-justice#description
(2017).Retrieved10September2017,from
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/CICrimJust/2016/23.html