It’s been revealed the NT government has decided to build a replacement of the Don Dale youth detention facility next to an adult prison.
Choosing this site has triggered concerned outrage among Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory and other Human Rights organisations including Amnesty International.
The NT government’s decision ignores recommendation of the NT’s own Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children.
Rodney Dillon, Indigenous Rights Advisor at Amnesty International, condemned the move arguing that the Northern Territory government has once again ignored the recommendations of its own Royal Commission prioritising economics and easy decisions over the lives of young people in detention.
"We should be doing everything possible to support kids and their families, not trap them in the quicksand of justice system through bad decisions. The Royal Commission was quite clear - new facilities should not be built near adult prisons,” Rodney Dillon said.
The Human Rights advisor also highlighted that the NT government has failed to meet a July deadline to reduce the minimal age of criminal responsibility as recommended by independent experts.
“They seem to think they know better than the experts. This is just one more in a litany of broken promises,” Rodney Dillon said in our interview.
