availability and range of diversionary programs for young offenders, including community-controlled and culturally-safe programs. Recommendation 21: Governments should provide screening and treatment for pre-existing conditions and disabilities when children interact with the youth justice system. Governments should ensure that qualified mental health support and therapies are provided for children in youth detention (as it is for children in community), and that the experience of incarceration does not exacerbate their mental health problems and trauma. 5.3 People with disability 91. The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission) has reported that people with disability, particularly First Nations people with disability, are ‘over represented at all stages of the criminal justice system’.111 There is limited data collection on this issue, but available information indicates that in Australia while only 2.9% of people have an intellectual disability they make up 15% of the prison population. 92. As noted above, there are high rates of children with disability in the youth justice system. A 2018 study with respect to youth detainees at Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Western Australia revealed ‘unprecedented levels of severe neurodevelopmental impairment amongst sentenced youth’.112 Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are particularly prevalent.113 One study in Western Australia found that 89% of children in detention between May 2015 and December 2016 had at least one domain of severe neurodevelopmental impairment and 36% were diagnosed with FASD.114 The majority of those with FASD had not been previously identified, highlighting a need for improved diagnosis.115 93. The Commission’s 2014 report, Equal Before the Law,116 found that necessary supports and adjustments for people with disabilities were frequently not provided in the criminal justice system. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and the Applied Principles to the National Disability Insurance Scheme require the criminal justice system meets the disability related needs of people who are incarcerated.117 94. There is a high rate of First Nations people with disability in Australian prisons and youth justice centres.118 The University of New South Wales Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System Project has commented that ‘Indigenous Australians with mental and cognitive disabilities are forced into the criminal justice system early in life in the absence of alternative pathways’.119 This highlights the need for 22