Key points
- Each night an average of about 819 children are in juvenile detention in Australia.
- Children as young as 10 years of age can legally be detained as that is the age of criminal responsibility across Australia.
- The number of unsentenced children in detention has grown each quarter since September 2020.
Hundreds of children - some as young as 10 - will have their dinner and settle in for the evening in an Australian youth prison tonight.
Most of them are detained in concrete prison cells the size of a car park space with minimal natural light, according to Monique Hurley, the managing lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre.
Figures from the June quarter of this year showed an average of 818 children were kept in juvenile detention facilities around the country each night during that period.
Inside a new standalone youth detention facility at Casuarina Prison in Perth. Source: Supplied / WA Department of Justice
The Northern Territory became the first Australian state or territory to up that age, increasing it to 12 at the start of December.
The Tasmanian government plans on of those in youth detention to 14, while keeping the age of criminal responsibility at 10, and the ACT has indicated it plans to raise its age of criminal responsibility to 14.
Figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show most of those held in juvenile detention were "unsentenced", meaning they were awaiting the outcome of their legal matter or sentencing.
The number of unsentenced children in detention has grown each quarter since September 2020.
In the June quarter this year, there were three and a half times as many young people who were being held without having been sentenced, compared to those in detention with a sentence.
What is the experience of those in youth detention?
As detailed in a page on the Queensland state government’s website, children are not free to move around facilities as they wish.
“There are times during the day and night when they will be locked in their room. When your child is locked in their room (including overnight), we check on them at least every 15 minutes,” it reads.
While education is provided within youth detention facilities, youth advocates query the ability of children to fully engage with educational opportunities within such settings.
Cheryl Axleby, co-chair of Change the Record said: "All the medical evidence shows that detention only causes harm to children and young people. This harm can be life-long."
The children most likely to be detained
The vast majority of the juveniles detained in Australia are male, with just 10 per cent of those in youth prisons being female.
All the medical evidence shows that detention only causes harm to children and young people. This harm can be life-long.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are drastically and disproportionately detained, and the imbalance has become even more obvious in the past 12 months.
Despite making up less than 4 per cent of the Australian population, they made up 49 per cent of those in youth detention in the June 2021 quarter and 56 per cent in the most recent figures.
A recent submission to the United Nations on behalf of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, Change the Record and the HRLC said a First Nations child was 14.4 times as likely to be incarcerated than a non-Indigenous child, and 30 times as likely to be incarcerated in the NT.
“It is not rare for 100 per cent of children in custody in the Northern Territory to be Aboriginal,” it said.
Statistics on youth detention in Australia. Source: SBS News
'Victims of abuse, trauma or neglect'
Ms Hurley said youth detainees are subject to practices that breach international human rights laws such as and .
“Children can spend 22 hours or more per day alone in a cell without any meaningful human contact,” she said.
Earlier this year, Western Australia was found to about the amount of time detention centre staff kept a teenage boy in solitary confinement.
Ms Hurley said “given that a significant number of children and young people in youth prisons are also the victims of abuse, trauma or neglect”, the potential for young people who undergo strip searches to be harmed was high.
“Evidence from Australia and around the world shows routine strip searching does not have a deterrent effect, and that reducing strip searches does not increase the amount of contraband in prisons,” she said.
Cheryl Axleby, co-chair of Change the Record. Source: Supplied
The plight of those in youth detention in the prompted outrage when highlighted on national television in 2016.
An image of a teenage boy strapped to a chair wearing a spit hood, which covered his entire head, shocked many.
Despite calls for the facility to be closed, it remains operational and along with Banksia Hill Detention Centre, was listed as a facility of particular concern in the joint submission to the UN made earlier this year.
The NT government earlier this month announced a ban on the use of spit hoods on young people in police custody after having banned the use of them on children in detention. But earlier this year, it was revealed they were still being used.
Changes afoot
In October, Western Australia’s Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston announced a review of its Young Offenders Act, which will consider the isolation and separation of detainees.
Mr Johnston admitted "few would argue against the need for greater diversionary and rehabilitative measures”, but said: "Youth justice is a highly complex area involving extremely challenging young people who have committed crimes or are at risk of doing so.”
WA's youth detention system has been in the spotlight in recent months since a group of young people were but separate from adult prisoners.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliffe apologised in September to those people whose experiences within youth detention in his state had not been fair or humane.
The Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings held hearings into the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. Source: AAP / Chris Kidd
The Tasmanian government has said it plans to close its one youth detention centre and “transition to contemporary therapeutic facilities and models of care” by the end of 2024.
Ms Axelby said the closure was the first step but added: “If the Tasmanian government just replaces Ashley with two more prisons to warehouse our kids, we will change nothing for future generations.”
Queensland is looking at expanding its youth justice detention capacity and could build a fourth such facility in Cairns.
The state's minister for youth justice, Leanne Linard, said as well as investing in diversion and intervention services, Queensland had the toughest bail laws for young people who are serious repeat offenders.
“This means we’re detaining more young people and we’re detaining them for longer,” she said.
“Forecasts indicate more permanent infrastructure will be needed and we are in the early planning stages.”
Ms Axelby said she was "disturbed" to hear the Queensland government "boasting" about the number of children it was locking up and "opening more prisons for children would do nothing to reduce the massively disproportionate incarceration of First Nations children and close the gap."
The future of youth justice
Youth advocates say states should move away from youth detention. Ms Axelby said there are effective alternatives that should be funded rather than detention facilities.
"We need to be caring for kids who are in trouble in their communities and on Country, not locking them in prisons and punishing them for needing support," she said.
"The alternatives to youth detention exist, we just need governments to fund them so they can grow and help more kids."
SBS News asked federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus whether a national approach should be taken to youth justice.
A spokesperson for Mr Dreyfus did not comment on the wider issue, but said the government was working closely with state and territory governments on the issue of raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
