And the offending is preventable.
Many of the children and teenagers in detention have mental impairments which make them pre-disposed, but not destined, to offend. They can't think like you or I and need extra help.
Many are stuck in cycles of poverty which no one has been able to help them out of.
"To keep categorising children and young people as violent … takes us away from the fact that these are children and young people with multiple complex needs and disabilities who need high levels of support, not high levels of security," Ms Hollands's WA colleague, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones said yesterday.
The advice of experts is clear – when young people get that help, they end up on a better path.
a BCLin k.
PTSD from family disorders, FASD from parental drinking and many more diagnoses relate this report.
sure not all kids have been born into such difficult situations. but a higher proportion than across average inmates are Aboriginal. the worst of it is for those who've been raised among Aboriginal family/people and yet don't have a lot of physical appearance. these people are caught, as one old friend told me, between the two strata of our broader community.
the point is this same set of problems presents in the adult prison system too. we're creating a lifestyle for these people by using prisons too easily, too readily.
prisons don't solve problems, they punish. thats what they're there for. if we wanted then to reform inmates we'd punish in a very different way.
