SPEAKING UP FOR KIDS IN DETENTION

National Children’s Commissioner at the launch of National Child Protection Week at Government House in Canberra.

The National Children’s Commissioner is calling for urgent reform across government departments and agencies to address Australia’s youth detention crisis.

Speaking at the launch of National Child Protection Week at Government House in Canberra yesterday, Commissioner Anne Hollonds said governments were not prioritising children’s safety and wellbeing.

She gave the example 17 boys transferred to Casuarina Adult prison from Banksia Hill, where they had been confined for up to 23 hours daily in their cells.

“The truth is that locking up children does not reduce crime,” she said. “In fact it’s not reducing offending, crime is just increasing. It just leads to more and more recidivism, more youth offending and then adult offending.”

Ms Hollands said instead, it was important to give vulnerable young people the care they needed.

“These are kids who come in with serious neurological disabilities, trauma, and serious mental health issues, we know that from research,” she said. “They need specialist care and treatment for their problems. They’re children, we’ve got to remember they’re children. And we need to be caring for them as our number one thing.”

She said it was also important for Governments to provide early intervention programs for kids before they ended up in institutions.