According to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in the Northern Territory’s Annual Report 2020-2021, harm to children in detention in the Northern Territory has significantly increased. Children under fourteen in juvenile detention often experienced “significant and detrimental cumulative harm from when they were very young” and a “lack of support provided to the children and their families.” Most issues related to offenders’ treatment by
staff, where ‘treatment’ refers to physical restraint, use of force, separation, at-risk procedures, searches, behaviour management system, access to therapeutic programs and interventions, leaving detention planning and education. (Media Statement, 2021 p1).
According to a Department of Territory Families, Housing and Community spokeswoman, there is no centralised data system to measure harm. The system does not record the data about a child’s harm to themselves as a ‘mandatory field’ and therefore data regarding rates of attempted suicide could not be ‘extracted for reporting purposes.’ Two children in the care of Government died by suicide between 2017 and 2021. In the annual report and monitoring reports, serious concerns about the Northern Territory Government’s transparency in reporting were raised. “Northern Territory children bear the consequences of a fragmented service system that doesnot adequately meet their unique support needs.”
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner in the Northern Territory released a monitoring report about the conditions in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre that highlighted the fact that youth “are living in a cagelike setting with minimal trauma-informed responses from Youth Justice Officers” six years after the Royal Commission. Staff shortages result in those children being confined in their cells for 23 hours and 45 minutes per day.” Some children at risk of self-harm did not receive medical attention for up to three days. Separations, which place a young person in isolation, were used regularly. In at least three instances, force was used for the purpose of separation. Complaints about youth in detention currently make up 70 per cent of the Office of the Children’s Commission's workload.
In The Impact of Poverty on the Developing Child: A Narrative View, Monks, Mandzufas, and Cross found that disadvantage, social exclusion, and poverty significantly harm children’s development, health and educational success. Because of the sensitivity of the young brain,
poverty causes an ongoing stress reaction which leads to the child responding to adversity in an ineffective manner. The child's brain is likely to develop less executive function, which forms the basis for learning when experiencing poverty. Moreover, if parents fail to provide a low-stress environment due to their own stress as a result of poverty, this can significantly harm the child.
Trauma and neurolaw
The Telethon Kids Institute study in 2018 in Western Australia's Banksia Hill juvenile detention centre showed that nine out of ten offenders have at least one form of severe brain impairment, 65% have at least three forms of severe brain impairment, 23% have five or more forms of severe brain impairment, and 36 per cent were diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FADS). Note that trauma is not mentioned. Neither was there any measurement of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Neurolaw connects neuroscientific research findings to the law and legal practices. It is a fast-developing field that attracts substantial funding, for example for the EU’s Human Brain Project, which aims to advance brain simulation and neuro-informatics, and the Brain Initiative in the USA, which seeks to improve treatment, prevention and cures for disorders of the brain. Australia is the home of the Neurolaw Database, a website that facilitates research into neurolaw cases in Australian courts and tribunals.
Image: ABC News
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