mistreatment of children in juvenile justice have arisen in several
jurisdictions over recent years.316
332. The NT Royal Commission final report details the failings of the Northern
Territory juvenile justice system, including that child detainees were:
•
frequently subjected to verbal abuse and racist remarks
•
deliberately denied access to water, food and use of toilets
•
restrained in ways that were potentially dangerous, and in situations
that were not emergencies
•
subjected to isolation excessively, punitively and in breach of the Youth
Justice Act (NT).317
333. The Northern Territory Government has indicated that it supports either in
full or in principle all 227 of the recommendations of the NT Royal
Commission and has prohibited the use of isolation for the purposes of
discipline.
334. The use of isolation practices in juvenile justice detention differs by
jurisdiction, and may not conform to the requirements of the CRC. For
example, the Commission has raised concerns318 that under NSW law a
child detainee in a juvenile justice centre in NSW may be ‘confined’ as a
form of punishment for misbehaviour, while ‘segregation’ specifically may
not be used for punishment.319 Similarly, the Commission has expressed
concerns about how force, including restraint, is permitted in the NSW
system. It noted that the NSW regulations allow a juvenile justice officer to
use force, which includes instruments of restraint, in a broad range of
circumstances, rather than the more limited circumstances specified by
the Committee on the Rights of the Child.320
335. Legislative, regulatory and oversight frameworks need to be
complemented by strengthening the culture of the youth detention
environment to reflect a rehabilitative and trauma-informed approach. As
pointed out by Jesuit Social Services in its submission, part of the challenge
of supporting a rehabilitative approach in juvenile justice is that ‘staff are
often low-paid and operating in a culture of monitoring and compliance’.321
Recommendation 48: Australian Governments explicitly prohibit the use of
isolation practices and force as punishment in juvenile justice facilities.
These practices should only be permitted when necessary to prevent an
imminent and serious threat of injury to the child or others, and only when
all other means of control have been exhausted.
58