Fast Facts: Don Dale Youth Detention Centre
"Don Dale" is the Condemned Berrimah Prison
• Berrimah Prison was long described as aged, archaic, outdated and inadequate. It was decommissioned and emptied of its adult occupants in 2014.
• Later that year, detainees from Don Dale Youth Detention Centre were transferred into the prison, which was renamed "Don Dale Youth Detention Centre".
• Approximately half of the facility could not be used because it contained asbestos, did not meet fire standards and contained numerous hanging points.
• A 2017 fire safety report identified issues with the electrical and fire safety system across ten blocks at the facility. This has not been addressed.
• A key recommendation of the 2017 Royal Commission was that the facility be closed.
The Children
• Often, 100% of the children in Don Dale are Indigenous.
• 46% are from communities where Indigenous languages are spoken at home.
• The vast majority of detainees are on remand (have not been sentenced).
• 90% have at least one serious developmental cognitive delay.
Conditions Inside
• Self-harm and attempted suicide rates have increased by 400% in the past year.
• Since 2020, the number of children in detention has tripled.
• Overcrowding and understaffing has led to “continual and systematic use of extended lockdowns”.
• Children as young as ten are isolated in cage-like cells for up to 23 hours a day, for days on end.
• Isolated children are fed through hatches and girls have been forced to shower in view of boys and staff.
The NT Government
• In 2018, the NT government announced that it would accept the intent and direction of all 227 Royal Commission recommendations.
• In 2021, the government introduced legislation to make it harder for children to get bail and access diversion.
• Children who are granted bail are shackled in ankle monitors.
• 2022 freedom of information documents show that, for over a year, the Government has been breaching its own independent monitoring policy. Only 2 out of 28 official visits were carried out over a 14-month period.
• Two visitors reported they had seen walls “smeared with blood”.
• Every day, the NT government spends $6,247 per child on youth detention.
The Results
• Children in the NT are held on remand at rates 300% higher than any other jurisdiction.
• 70% of children reoffend within 12 months.
• Within five years of their last detention, 61% of detainees enter the adult prison system.
• Children who come into contact with a youth detention facility will have lasting trauma.