Essay: Don Dale Youth Detention centre juveniles

The controversial treatment of Don Dale Youth Detention centre juveniles in August 2014 is of social and national importance. The outbreak of footage on July 25 2016, from august 2014 of the mistreatment of juveniles in Don Dale Youth detention centre and the media’s treatment of the events shows that mistreatment against Aboriginals remains a significant issue in Australia media and society. While not all the children in Don Dale were aboriginal, some savage media has specifically targeted aboriginal families. Editorial writer, Kerryn Pholi who has worked as a social worker and a correctional officer wrote in The Australian “As social work students, we were taught about “Aboriginal parenting styles””(Pholi, 2 August, 2016). This treatment of Aboriginal’s as almost “inferior” raises the questions about how much Australia has socially progresses in its view of Aboriginals. The Don Dale articles dedicated to blaming aboriginals and their lack of parenting for the juveniles indicate a pervasive racism that still exists in mainstream media. This kind of reportage not only is degrading, but highlights the obstacles still faced by Aboriginals in public Australian life.
Aside from its social importance, Don Dale Youth detention centre has national significance. The media’s denigration of the aboriginal juveniles in Don Dale has the potential to damage Australia’s international reputation. The media’s propensity to ridicule the original owners of our land sends a message that Australia is behind other nations in terms of equality, making it difficult for Australia to be seen as a progressive nation. It also degrades Australian culture, which undermines national pride in Australia. The relentless negative portrayal of Aboriginal families of Don Dale juveniles has the potential to influence community thinking, convincing some that Aboriginal families and their “different” way of raising their children is to blame for the Don Dale Youth detention centre events. Therefore, the media’s representation of Don Dale Youth Detention Centre’s mistreatment of juveniles is significant both socially and nationally.
Australia’s juvenile detention history dates back all the way to the arrival of the first fleet. Amongst the convicts on the first fleet, which arrived in 1788, there were three boys and two girls under sixteen. In the nineteenth century the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land received many young convicts. Although at first no special treatment was accorded the young convicts, after a time alternative methods were considered and tried. In New South Wales in 1803, apprenticeships for juvenile convicts were introduced. By 1820, boy convicts under sixteen, in theory anyway, were able to spend three years undertaking trade training before being assigned to labour in the colony. Point Puer was closed in 1849, by which time the number of juveniles being transported from England had significantly decreased.
The second half of the nineteenth century watched the development of reform and industrial schools to cater for both offending and destitute children. Attempts were made to classify and separate “criminal” and “neglected” youth. Reform and industrial schools were intended to contain and serve two, apparently distinct, juvenile populations: delinquents on the one hand and the merely destitute on the other. Towards the end of the nineteenth century growing concern about the use of large institutions resulted in the growth of community-based arrangements. The dual schools system was eventually abandoned but the uneasy relationship between welfare and so-called justice responses is still with us today.
In the 1990s, despite an absence of hard evidence to suggest that juvenile crime is out of control, the current popular notion of a juvenile law and order crisis has been remarkably influential at the policy making level. Witness the success of media driven law and order campaigns which have resulted in the passing, for example, of the Western Australian legislation, the now infamous Crime (Serious and Repeat Offenders) Sentencing Act 1992.  In New South Wales, the Sentencing Act 1989, intended to reduce the gap between the length of sentence and the actual time served, has resulted in a substantial increase in the amount of time served by juvenile offenders in custody.
The representation of the Don Dale Youth detention footage in the News Corps’ The Australian is in stark contrast to articles published by the Public Broadcaster, Four Corners which is generally supportive of the idea that the Government is to blame. The Australian has displayed most of the pieces on Don Dale Youth detention centre in the open ed pages, written as a commentator piece. This creates a lot of bias surrounding each of the articles. Most of the commentator pieces explore who is at fault, particularly aiming the blame at the parents of the juveniles. The other pieces were national news articles and focused particularly on the politics of situation. In an opinion piece by Janet Albrechtson, in The Australian on August 3, she states “We have become so hopeless, so scared of making judgments about other parents, we would rather turn our eyes away from children whose life chances are dashed by dysfunction than ask parents to do the best they can by their child” (Albrechtson, 3 August 2016). Albrechtson’s article focuses the blame on the juveniles parents, by using emotive and inclusive language and tone which aims to get readers to sympathise and therefore agree with her opinion.  This is in contrast to Four Corners episode on ABC on the 25th July, 2016 where the poor behaviour is shown by the officers “How prison management responded beggars belief.
Officer: Go, go grab the f***in’ gas and f***in’ gas them through f***in’, get Jimmy to gas them through here.” (four corners, 25 july, 2016). However, an editorial piece also displayed in The Australian by Wesley Aird on 4th of August supports some of the views expressed on Four Corners, stating “The territory’s economy is heavily dependent on commonwealth government funding. Much of the work population in the Northern Territory spends its time looking after the very substantial portion of Territorians welfare. To suggest that politicians didn’t know what was going in in Don Dale is indefensible” (Aird, 4 August, 2016).
The historical circumstances surrounding the Don Dale Youth Detention centre is often omitted in articles published by The Australian or, if referenced, they contain a conservative spin. The footage from Don Dale shows the mistreatment of the juveniles by the officers working within the facility, but unlike Four Corners, the majority of articles within the Australian ignore facts and events that might support at least some aspects of Four Corners message. 4 out of the eleven articles published in The Australian between the __ and __ of August actually discuss the Government involvement in the Don Dale Youth detention centre situation, while neither Four Corners or the Australian actually draw on in extensively, the depiction of the treatment varies significantly between the two. The Australian portrays the mistreatment of the juveniles by the officers as “necessary”. Commentary writer, Kerryn Pholi from The Australian states, “The viewer sees the spit hood and the restraints as artifacts of torture, but to the correctional officer these are simply pieces of safety equipment, used to minimise the risk of harm to officers and detainees alike” (Pholi, 2 August, 2016). This response differs from Four Corners in which the program makes it clear that the officers were at fault, shown lying when the boys are shackled, dragged outside and sprayed with a fire hose…. A few hours later … Don Dale management told police that multiple boys had escaped from their cells…and armed themselves with weapons” (Four corners, 25 july 2016). Four Corners also asserts that “what’s going on with children in detention here is a deliberate punitive cruel policy, prosecuted by the Minister responsible and his cohorts, no doubt, and supported by his political advisors. So it’s not an accident, it’s not inadvertence, eh it- it’s not indifference, it’s a deliberate policy that has led to the catastrophe, which is occurring behind walls…” (Four corners, 25 july, 2016). Overall. The Australian’s coverage seems intent on depicting Don Dale juveniles in a negative light, disregarding the actual treatment they received from the officers. ABC’s Four Corners approach, generally presented a more balanced account, providing arguments for both sides.
The commentary article in The Australian by Kerryn Pholi (2 August, 2016, pg 12) titled, “Detention footage points to parenting deficiency” presents a scathing depiction of parenting of the Don Dale children and an unreliable report on what really happened at Don Dale Youth detention centre. Nonetheless, it is useful as it provides insight into the conservative, ideological spin The Australian adopts in its attempts to depict the Don Dale juveniles negatively. The editorial was published on the 2nd of August 2016; a week after Four Corners exposed the footage of Don Dale to the nation. The articles attempts to portray the parents of the juveniles as incompetent. This is evident in the beginning of the second paragraph in the article, where Pholi writes “Yes, it’s horrific, but the real horror is that for some of these children that may be the closest experience they have had of “parenting”. The provocative language insinuates that these children and their families are at fault for the treatment they received. This article adopts an argumentative tone, asserting, “These children just need love”. By canvassing this sensational language, the reader is positioned to view the parents of the juveniles as “more helpless and childlike than the actual child.” A clear editorial drive is evident in the assertion that “ This cluster of professionals may be dedicated to the child’s welfare, but they do not fulfill a parenting role.” This article furthers its conservative bias by stating that the “ The problem in the Don Dale facility is not necessarily that spit hoods and restraints were in use but that they were being used as a disciplinary measure”. Through nuances of language, the reader is positioned the view the juveniles in Don Dale as “untamed” and “reckless”.
The editorial’s reliability is also undermined by its omission of important details relating to the context of the event. This article focuses heavily on justifying the officer’s actions in Don Dale. This sensationalism comes at the expense of focusing on the evidence and actual footage of the events, which occurred at Don Dale. The article’s clear bias makes it an unreliable, highly subjective source, but it proves useful in understanding the way The Australian mounted arguments against the juveniles and parents in order to undermine their parenting abilities. This perspective is not supported by sources in Four Corners. The negative perspective of the Don Dale Juveniles in this editorial is representative of most articles in The Australian. It is in stark contrast of new stories featured on Four Corners, which generally presented a more moderate and balanced portrayal. Overall, this source has limited value because it unfairly depicts the Don Dale juveniles and their parents as incompetent through its use of language, the omission of important details and its lack of representativeness.