“I haven’t seen anything that satisfies me that we have really reformed our youth detention centres. The report goes into some real detail of the gaps and what we need to fix to ensure that young people are safe, they are given the best opportunities, there are structural programs to allow them to rehabilitate and reintegrate back into our communities.”
“This isn’t a recent issue, we’ve been raising concerns around the running of youth detention centres so there’s a lot of work to do.”
The report examined the tear-gassing of 6 youths in the Don Dale Correctional Centre before they were re-located to an adult prison last year. The report was tabled in the Territory Parliament and the serious nature of the incident outraged Indigenous legal organisations and families at the time.
In a media release today, she stated "it is disappointing that so many of these recommendations still have not been implemented, when an urgent response would have been more appropriate."
"I would hope we would see a coordinated, professional, high level response to the issues raised in the Four Corners program and to youth justice issues in the Territory generally."
