Head of NT News @DeniseCahill18 urges the NT Government to exercise caution when implementing youth justice law reforms that could impact generations of children to come.

It's not every day I agree with the NT News, but here we go.. #ntpol

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For decades, children around the country ~ but particularly First Nations kids ~ have been let down by Labor and Liberal Government's obsession with law-and-order state election campaigns. In fact, everyone has been let down - because our communities are none the safer for it.
This is not a problem unique to the Territory - although the NT Government's backflips when it comes to youth justice reform have been particularly monumental in recent years.

I've written about them here: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Evidence stemming back to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Atkinson Review in QLD, NT Royal Commission all tell us the same thing:
1. 'Tough on crime' does not reduce crime
2. Prisons dont make us safe
3. There are real alternatives that govts should fund
And for decades we've seen scandals emerge about the horrendous treatment of predominately Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in prisons ➡️ more inquiries ➡️ promises of 'never again' ➡️ short-term govt funding for pilot programs and then...
... govt $$ commitment wanes & programs aren't given long term funding, kids act up & there's a media or political beat up and we see the whole cycle reversed

@ACurrentAffair9 expose on youth crime ➡️ govt announces tough-on-crime-bail reform ➡️ reviews are thrown by the wayside
This is the terrible, seemingly endless cycle we are trapped in until SOMEONE making these political decisions decides that children's lives ~ and community wellbeing ~ are too important to be thrown around like political playthings.
There is no evidence gap. We know exactly what we need to invest in to keep communities and kids safe. We need long-term investment in diversion programs (which are working! health programs in the top end have a 75% recidivism rate!)
We need to front-load resources into supporting families & communities to avoid the criminal justice system. (Currently 80% of the justice budget goes into prison, even though the earlier a child comes in contact with the criminal justice system the more likely the are to offend)
We need to plug the gaps in other govt services (why are so many kids with disabilities, in contact with so many govt agencies like health, education, housing, child protection.. not getting assessed or treated until they show up in the criminal justice system?!)
And we need to #RaiseTheAge to at least 14 and actually start addressing kids' behaviour as the health and social issue it is - not a criminal one. We have listened to the doctors on Covid19 (thank god) and it's time we listened to them on raising the age too. /end

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More from @SophieTrevitt

23 Mar
I know everyone's fixated on Parliament House, and fair enough some horrific stuff is going down, but right now the Northern Territory Government is announcing reforms that will see the number of Aboriginal children thrown into prison cells SKY ROCKET. newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/3…
These reforms are so regressive and harmful. They fly in the face of the Royal Commission, and will only drive more children into police and prison cells (and if you think conditions have improved in youth detention since the Royal Commission, my experience is that they have not)
There are 43 times the number of Aboriginal children locked up behind bars in the NT than non-Indigenous children. When I was a lawyer in Alice, there were ZERO non-Indigenous kids behind bars. Now the NTG wants to build new prisons to fill with more of kids - it is disgraceful.
Read 7 tweets
22 Mar
This is terrible. These knee-jerk, highly politicised, dangerous law reforms will take the NT back to pre-Royal Commission days, filling up youth prisons with Aboriginal kids the way they were prior to @4corners expose on the abuse in Don Dale. #ntpol

ntnews.com.au/news/politics/…
I don't know how to be any clearer: what didn't work then, is not going to work now. Making bail tougher, locking more kids up on remand, slapping on GPS devices.. is not going to keep people safe - it's going to criminalise more children and hurt everyone in the long run.
Final thing - youth prisons in the NT are pressure cookers of abuse, unmet physical, mental and emotional needs, overcrowding and harm. They are no place for children - particularly not kids who have tough stuff going on in their lives. These places break kids. I saw it.
Read 4 tweets
16 Sep 19
THREAD: Extremely grateful to be at this @Change_Record event today hearing from MPs, experts and an extraordinary Aboriginal woman Jess about her experience of incarceration #aisles #indigenousX #prison
Jess was made a ward of the state as a child, dad had schitziphrenia, mother had addiction issues, and Jess described “finding acceptance in all the wrong people and they made me feel safe”
“Everyone I trusted hurt me. Everyone in the system who should protect kids didn’t. The label the police give you is like you’re an animal.”
Read 9 tweets
1 Sep 19
Fascinating (and disturbing) to hear how Cambridge Analytica was set up as a front .org by a company undertaking social media research for military purposes. It then used the same kind of military techniques to target US citizens to influence US election @chrisinsilico #antidote
Incredible. Targeted people they’d identified as susceptible to their messaging, got them to turn out and meet up, until they created a political insurgency that could grow organically @chrisinsilico #antidote @IdeasattheHouse
Colonialism still exists, it’s just digital. Big powers still go into resource rich countries, they just undermine their democracy now, instead of invading them, so they can tap into their resources @chrisinsilico #antidote
Read 16 tweets
5 Jun 19
THREAD: We have the AFP raiding the offices of journalists, intimidating our free press, threatening our democratic right to know, because @AustralianLabor and @LiberalAus have spent the last half decade passing laws that erode these fundamental freedoms #auspol
Late last year Lib & Lab passed amendments to the Espionage Bill which included extremely concerning provisions that (you guessed it) criminalise journalists for publishing about national security matters - even when they are in the public interest
sbs.com.au/news/sweeping-…
Just before Christmas, Labor capitulated to the Liberal party and passed unprecedented, world-first encryption laws that would allow police to force providers to create weak points in encryption services (effectively created vulnerabilities that can be exploited by others)
Read 8 tweets
27 May 19
THREAD: I have been having some of the most heartbreaking conversations of my life with men on #Manus who see the Morrison Government's reelection as a death warrant.

"When there is no hope or light in life for the individual that makes the life completely different." #auspol
These men are saying that things are extremely bad. People are despairing. My friend tells me that people are self-harming with razor blades, overdosing and attempting suicide - they have lost so much hope.
They are scared that the media have stopped reporting what's happening. He says there were multiple incidents today alone.

"No one in this world can not imagine how bad and serious is."
Read 12 tweets

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