Young indigenous people in Australia are 24 times more likely to be imprisoned than their non-indigenous counterparts.
In the Northern Territory alone, more Aboriginal children are in prison on a per capita basis than black people across the United States; a fact that, in no small part, has helped the state achieve a horrific reputation for having the third highest rate of imprisonment anywhere in the world. The two who exceed it? Entire countries: China, and the US.
In 2008, we said sorry. In 2017, we are repeating the inhumane evils of our nation’s past.
Tonight, children as young as 10 may find themselves locked up. The arresting officer, thanks to a controversial law enforced two years ago, will not even have to fill out paperwork acknowledging that the arrest took place, nor inform the child’s family of what has happened.
We are on the brink of another stolen generation. This time, it will not be under the guise of bringing indigenous children into our homes as a means of improving their lives, but of throwing them in prison to improve ours.
What’s just as distressing is the willingness of these children to go along with it. As is seen in the segment from Al Jazeera below, kids actually see juvenile detention as a means of the security they don’t have at home; a chance to catch up with friends and family, eat three meals a day, receive education, warmth, a proper bed.
Then they return, and even those who aren’t propelled back into the criminal lifestyle find themselves hounded by police looking to sweep them off the street and out of mind.
It costs $440,000 to imprison someone for one year, and yet our justice system sees that as a reasonable cost for punishing a young man like Sam Davies, who was sentenced to 12 months in jail for stealing hamburger buns.
This is unnecessary. This is cruel. This is wrong.
We can no longer sit idly by as this cycle continues.
Supporting causes like Justice Reinvestment – a three year program designed to use the money traditionally thrown into the prison system as an investment into small towns like Bourke – is the key to success. Do not expect governments to do the right thing. Our job is to simply keep them accountable (as was done this week, when Attorney General George Brandis attempted to hurry a native title bill through the senate without consulting those it would impact) to ensure those who can actually make a difference are able to do so.
Now is the time to act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTKAkV9rDNY