Juvenile detention in the Northern Territory is administered by Territory Families, since a departmental reorganisation following the Labor victory at the August 2016 Northern Territory general election. Juvenile detention is mostly operated through two facilities - the Alice Springs Juvenile Holding Centre in Alice Springs, and the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre in eastern Darwin. These had previously been administered by the Department of Correctional Services. A juvenile is a child between the age of 10 and 17.
The Northern Territory, as of June 2015, had a juvenile detention rate of 16.7 per 100,000 people – the highest of Australia's states and territories. A report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in April 2016 showed that in 2014–15 of a national total of 900 juveniles in detention on an average day, 41 were in detention in the Northern Territory. However, in terms of incarceration rates, the Northern Territory overwhelmingly had the highest rate of juveniles in detention of any state or territory. It detained 15.6 in every 10,000 children of that age on an average day. Western Australia had the next-highest rate at 6.1 children detained, while Victoria had the lowest at 1.5.[1]
The juvenile detention system was the subject of the Royal Commission into Juvenile Detention in the Northern Territory established by Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull on 28 July 2016, following the broadcast of the Four Corners episode "Australia's Shame", which highlighted the abuse of children in the system. The final report for the Royal Commission was tabled to the Australian Parliament on 17 November 2017.[2]
- ^ Youth Justice in Australia 2014-15 report, prepared by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported in The Age, 28 July 2016, Explainer: juvenile detention state by state
- ^ "Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory". Australian Government. Royal Commissions. Retrieved 8 October 2019.