Four Corners: Kids Doing Time

Monday night’s Four Corners story, ‘Kids Doing Time,’ looks at how New South Wales’ “get tough on crime” policy is condemning hundreds of young people to life in jail.

Reporter Matthew Carney goes inside to see first-hand the conditions young offenders in juvenile detention are forced to endure. He goes with them when they’re out of jail and trying to go straight and he asks why there aren’t better support services to help them keep on the right side of the law.

In NSW, that  policy combined with tougher policing has seen an explosion in the number of children in custody. In the last two years the number of young people inside on remand has risen by 32 per cent.

Keeping a teenager in detention costs $150,000 a year. That money may keep them off the streets but it doesn’t guarantee rehabilitation. Evidence suggests the longer the children stay inside the more likely they are to commit more crimes.

Meanwhile in Victoria, Bernie Geary, Child Safety Commissioner says: “I’m telling you… when a young person is locked up, it’s the beginning of a downward spiral.”

Reporter Matthew Carney goes with a young offender who has just been released from custody who has never had a mother or father to look after him.

The youth tells Four Corners: “They walk past and I ask them for change, and they say you should be home with your mum…. that’s when my punch comes out and I take their money.

“I just need to know how to do it… someone who can show me how to do it, to lift me you know.”

InVictoria many juveniles are more likely to be placed in a diversion program.

“We’ve had occasions here in Victoria where our dual justice system has been challenged and it’s taken some bravery… we’ve had a succession of human services ministers from both parties… that have stuck fast with our juvenile justice system,” says Bernie Geary, Child Safety Commissioner, Victoria.

As a result of this approach, authorities in Victoria lock away one young person for every four who are put behind bars in NSW. In NSW there is now a problem of overcrowding in juvenile detention centres and the incidence of violence is increasing.

Four Corners has also obtained leaked figures from the Department of Juvenile Justice.

This story airs 24 August at 8.30pm on ABC1 and is repeated on 25 August at 11.35pm.