Indigenous youths 24 times more likely to be in detention, Amnesty International report finds

Extract from ABC News

By social affairs correspondent Norman Hermant

Posted 17 minutes ago

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10 to 17 are 24 times more likely than non-Indigenous youth to be in detention, an Amnesty International report has found.

The report, A Brighter Tomorrow, also states Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people make up about 5 per cent of the Australian population of 10 to 17 year olds, but comprise 59 per cent of those in detention.
A Brighter Tomorrow will be launched this afternoon by the group's secretary-general Salil Shetty.
It makes a number of recommendations to the Commonwealth and state governments, including:

• To conform with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, for any person up to the age of 17 detention must be a measure of last resort
• Any state of territory laws that treat persons below the age of 12 as criminally responsible should be declared invalid
• Australia should ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, and allow inspections of youth detention facilities to ensure standards are being met
• Australia should recognise Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders as a disability under the National Disability Insurance Scheme

Perhaps the most important recommendation is the adoption of a program known as Justice Reinvestment, aimed at dramatically reducing the rate of Indigenous youth imprisonment.
Mr Shetty last week travelled to Bourke, in north-west New South Wales, where Justice Reinvestment is now in a trial phase.
Under the program, police, Aboriginal organisations and government departments work together to provide alternatives to jail.
"It's great to see this is community led," Mr Shetty said.
"It's the Aboriginal community that's driving it."
Mr Shetty said Justice Reinvestment was needed now to reduce some of the highest figures for youth incarceration in the world.
"That number should be a real wake-up call to this country," he said.
"A country that is as rich as Australia, a country which is as well resourced is not able to address this problem."

Stopping imprisonment before it happens

Justice Reinvestment has been a welcome initiative in Bourke.
The town has the highest bail breach rate in New South Wales, and it is ranked number one for arrests for driving without a licence and vehicle theft.
Young people like Taneka Fitzgerald, 16, have become used to their friends being locked up.
"It's the way it's always been here," she said.
In Bourke, Justice Reinvestment is part of the community-led Maranguka Initiative, a grassroots approach where government and non-government agencies work with the Aboriginal community to address disadvantage and make sure programs put in place have enough long-term funding to be sustainable.
From giving driving offenders a path to legal licences to developing plans to avoid bail breaches, Justice Reinvestment's focus is on stopping imprisonment before it happens.
"It is a big problem in a lot of communities," Bourke resident Ricky Mitchell , who works as a development officer for a jobs outreach program, said.
"Not only Bourke, but Indigenous communities right around Australia."
Justice Reinvestment already has a track record in America.
When it was introduced in Texas in 2007, youth imprisonment fell enough to allow the state to close eight juvenile detention centres.
Alistair Ferguson, who is overseeing the two-year trial in Bourke, said he is confident Justice Reinvestment will work.
He said he believed it was a long overdue change to current thinking.
"The explanation is that there's no other alternative, other than being sent to jail," he said.
"We just don't accept that.
"We're just coming out and being clear, with a clear direction and a focus on improving the appalling stats of young people."

Both Mr Ferguson and Amnesty International say Justice Reinvestment is a model not just for Bourke, but for all of Australia.