Opinion | Stop treating children like criminals

Ten years of age. Just think about this.

Think about a child you may know who is 10.

At this age, “children’s brains are still developing throughout these formative years where they have limited capacity for reflection before action. Children in grades four, five and six are not at a cognitive level of development where they are able to fully appreciate the nature of their actions or the life-long consequences of being labelled a criminal”, explains the #RaiseTheAge Campaign.

The response to the ABC program immediately led to the establishment of the Royal Commission and Board of Inquiry into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory.

The royal commission was tasked with understanding why and how children and young people could be treated this way and how the system contributed to such treatment.

On November 17, 2017, the royal commission tabled its report. It was sobering reading, shocking in the scale of ill-treatment and systemic failures.

This was almost five years ago.

In the intervening time, approximately 450 to 500 children per year have been in prison across Australia.

That’s 450 to 500 children each year whose lives are harmed by being in prison. Every day a child spends in prison can cause lifelong harm to that child’s growth and development.

On Thursday, October 13 — just over a week ago — the Northern Territory finally introduced legislation into the parliament to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years.

While this is an encouraging step, it is also a missed opportunity to #RaiseTheAge to 14 years.

We all know children belong in classrooms and playgrounds, not in handcuffs, courtrooms or prison cells.

And everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved.

This was acknowledged internationally when, in September, 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that all nations raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

This is the age proposed by numerous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, expert United Nations bodies, human rights organisations, medical and legal bodies, educators and academics who have long advocated basing this decision on the current medical evidence.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately impacted by these laws and are pushed into prison cells at even higher rates, accounting for 65 per cent of these younger children in prisons around the country.

First Nations children are also less likely than other children to receive a caution from police, and are more likely to be charged with a criminal offence.

Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds spoke recently about the shocking case of a 10-year-old in the NT who was imprisoned for stealing bread.

“This is unspeakable, I just simply cannot understand how we do it in this country,” she said.

“Obviously, a 10-year-old stealing food is hungry and is in need of care and protection but [in this case] was locked in a cell on his own at Don Dale,” Ms Hollands said.

In November, 2021, Australia’s attorneys general agreed to develop a plan to raise the age to 12. There were concerns this ‘plan’ was only tinkering around the edges rather than tackling the significant ongoing negative impacts of imprisonment on children.

Lawyers, human rights advocates and First Nations people who have been outspoken critics of the current age of criminal responsibility in Australia, criticised the move, saying it would do very little to reduce the number of children in prison.

Data for the period 2020-21, published by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, showed that of the 444 children aged 10 to 13 in detention in Australia last year, 410 would still be imprisoned if jurisdictions only raised the age to 12.

In response to the recent announcement of the NT’s legislation to raise the age to 12, Change the Record’s Cheryl Axleby, a Narungga woman from South Australia, said: “Are they really doing it to reduce incarceration rates? Or are they just window dressing to demonstrate that they’ve made some change and that should be good enough?”

Ms Hollonds, commenting on the NT decision, said while the NT legislation was moving in the right direction, the age of criminal responsibility should be 14 years — in line with human rights recommendations globally.

However, despite compelling evidence supporting #RaiseTheAge, only the ACT, Western Australia and Tasmania have committed to taking steps towards raising the age of criminal responsibility or the age of criminal detention. Other jurisdictions, including Victoria, remain non-committal.

We need leadership at the federal level to drive this change across all states and territories.

Politicians have the power to change the laws to keep children safe, supported and free from prison.

Rather than spending the majority of their youth justice budgets on locking children up in prisons as they do currently, let’s encourage politicians to invest in the services and programs that work. There are many community programs across the country that are making a real difference to children and their families.

Every child deserves the chance to learn from their mistakes in a safe and supported way. If a child does something serious, we need to help them learn from their mistakes so they can grow into responsible members of our community.

Politicians have all this evidence, we just need to convince them how much the community cares about keeping children out of prison and instead supporting them in our homes, schools and communities.

Let’s work towards being a country that understands our children are our future and that makes their wellbeing our priority.

As Ms Hollonds noted last year, “Other countries have found ways to support the welfare of children instead of imprisoning them. Australia needs to make our children a national priority.”

Across the country, 211,670 people have already signed the petition to #RaiseTheAge. Members of parliament and attorneys-general in every state and territory are being handed a clear message from their constituents that children do not belong in prisons.

There is growing momentum for change.

Now is the time to make your voices heard, to convince politicians to #RaiseTheAge to at least 14 years old.

That’s why your help is needed. Join the #RaiseTheAge campaign now!

What can you do?