Youth imprisonment laws 'dangerous'

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Frontline Territory health care workers with more than 1000 combined years of experience in serving NT communities have today written to the Chief Minister calling for urgent changes to the Territory's criminal legal system.

It is buckling under the CLP's new policies that have seen more than 1% of Territorians currently incarcerated.

The letter will be read out in parliament this evening as one of the adjournments, by MLA Mr Yiŋiya Guyula.

The open letter, signed by over 170 Territory doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists and allied health professionals, expresses "deep alarm" about the policies introduced by the CLP which include lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old and reinstating the use of spit hoods.

Health care workers say these policies will jeopardise health and make the NT less safe for everyone, calling for the government to instead address unmet community needs for housing, food, healthcare, and education to prevent crime in the long term.

The letter also calls for funding of diversionary youth programs, raising the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 in line with international practice, and reinstating the ban on spit hoods, which risk death and injury from suffocation.

Jailing a child costs $1 million a year – money that should instead be spent on housing and healthcare.

Already the NT has the highest rate of youth imprisonment of any jurisdiction, at over seven times the national average, with Indigenous children disproportionately overrepresented. We should be focusing on keeping kids safe and healthy at home with their families – not in jail.

Dr Hilary Tyler, Mr Yiŋiya Guyula, Mx Latoya Aroha Rule