New NT law will increase Indigenous incarceration

Proposed bail legislation in the Northern Territory will make it easier to incarcerate young people accused of committing minor offences.

The new law will make it harder for children between the ages of 10 and 17 to get bail before they receive a trial. The changes will overwhelmingly affect Indigenous youth.

As it stands, Indigenous youth make up 96.9 percent of all young people in detention in the Northern Territory. This is despite the fact that they comprise 44 percent of the population aged between 10 and 17.

With an imprisonment rate of 843 per 100,000 people, the NT jails more people per capita than the US or China. Of those imprisoned, 86 percent identify as Indigenous.

In a Facebook rant posted on 17 May, NT chief minister Adam Giles announced the proposal, saying that he had “had enough” of “rogue youth” and that the government would attempt to push legislation through the following week.

In response to Giles’ announcement, the Australian Bar Association said that the proposed laws would “further exacerbate Australia’s disgraceful Indigenous incarceration rates”.

Numerous reports have detailed the treatment meted out to youth by prison authorities in the NT. In August 2014, prison guards at the former Don Dale youth detention centre used tear gas on a group of young people who were protesting against their systematic abuse at the centre.

In September of the same year, a government report found that youth at the detention centre were subject to “inhumane” solitary confinement and the “inappropriate” use of restraints.

In 2000, under NT mandatory sentencing laws, a 15-year-old Indigenous boy was sentenced to 20 days in detention for stealing school supplies worth less than $100. While in custody, he committed suicide. These proposed laws, if passed, will increase the likelihood of such tragedies.