Jailing is failing young Australians. Sadly, most of the young people in Australia’s juvenile justice system come from backgrounds where they have already often suffered from severe neglect or abuse and/or have been placed in out of home care. This was clearly demonstrated by the Royal Commission into the Don Dale Centre in the Northern Territory. The children in these centres, who can be as young as 10, have often had the hardest of young lives and need family and community support, education and life opportunities, rather than being locked up.
