Thread by @TracyWesterman

#RaiseTheAge Why does prison increase rather than decrease the odds of future criminality? Well, it’s predominantly about the stage of development. First kids this age don’t fully understand consequences of behaviours in the same way as adults 1/14

They’re rigid in their understanding of right & wrong & driven by an external fear of punishment. Criminalise kids at that stage of development & you risk their moral reasoning ability stagnating at that level. What this means is they learn how to avoid punishment 2/14

(e.g., by becoming better at evading law enforcement; or telling better lies) rather than developing a greater sense of moral reasoning based on an internal working model of right & wrong. Second; attachment matters.
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Compromised attachment occurs when there is disconnection from primary attachment figures.When kids are imprisoned, they learn not to rely on close attachments for their emotional needs. We know that compromised attachment gets passed into future generations & relationships 4/14

We are seeing this in practical action in which there are ‘generationally incarcerated’ cohorts of kids in every district & region who make up the bulk of the crime stats. These kids have often had a family member who has been imprisoned.
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We know exposure to criminality whilst not ensuring this pathway certainly increases the odds partic given the absence of early interv’n & prev’n programs. 3rd kids thrive based on their worlds being predictable. That the love of prim attachments are predictable & consistent 6/14

Lose that at such a young age and the evidence shows it is almost impossible to recover from this loss. How a child makes meaning of this loss is tied in with their developmental stage. This occurs by either blaming others or internalising blame. 7/14

Either way the results are you develop in kids the idea you can’t rely on anyone to love you. Or kids develop a sense of self-loathing.These outcomes are consistent with the personality variables of those who have nothing to lose & don’t fear anything anymore incl prison 8/14

4th we have long seen studies which indicate that between 80%-93% of kids who are incarcerated have trauma.
Untreated childhood trauma has strong links with substance abuse and violence. We should not be criminalising children for what are often normal, trauma reactions. 9/14

It’s important we understand this trajectory & its links with future criminality & why assessing for & treating trauma is so critical to prevention. 
Those with trauma tend to be more impulsive & limited in their capacity to ‘self soothe’ or calm. 10/14

We are already starting to see that most youth & adult crimes are highly impulsive, or reactive to interpersonal conflict. So, placing traumatized children with other traumatised children creates an environment that ensures heightened reactivity to others becomes normalised 11/14

Finally a strange argument I’ve heard often is “kids feel safer in prison, than their own homes”-which you would think is why we should NOT be putting kids in prison! 
But what is at the core of this is Aust is comfortable criminalising black kids who are victims of trauma 12/14

This requires we search within ourselves & ask when we lose our compassion for kids who are being traumatised in their homes. Well in Aust our Govt says we lose that compassion at 10. At 10 you don’t get a do over when you have parents Ltd in their capacity to care for you 13/14

I had parents who loved me. I always felt safe. That’s luck. Until we have empathy for this we will continue criminalising children for being born into circumstances over which they have no control
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