The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin, NT was notoriously featured in a Four Corners report sometime in 2015. Following that report the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT was launched and in 2017 released its findings. The Royal Commission report found systemic failures of the NT child detention system to rehabilitate their youth and failed to protect their human rights. Overall it is considered the detention centre was not suitable to house the NT’s most vulnerable youth. The report revealed evidence of child detainees spending long hours isolated in their cells due to staff shortages and rolling lockdowns amongst other abuses.
The facility was recommended to be closed following the Royal Commission report however that has not occurred yet and the NT’s most vulnerable children continue to be housed in the detention centre. It is expected that the facility will finally be replaced sometime in 2024. In the meantime, tougher recent bail laws in the NT have seen increases in the number of children being housed in Don Dale as a result of these changes. A class action settled with the NT government in recent years saw a number of ex-child detainees of Don Dale receive compensation for mistreatment in juvenile detention (between 2006 and 2017). The mistreatment included unnecessary strip searches, excessive force and numerous hours of isolation. It is understood that this class action did not cover institutional child sexual abuse in those juvenile detention settings.
At Chamberlains we represent a number of individuals who experienced child sexual abuse at Don Dale and numerous other juvenile detention facilities around Australia. If you have a claim and wish to explore your rights further, we can help.
If you have been a victim of sexual abuse at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre or other juvenile detention facility the team at Chamberlains can help. At Chamberlains Law firm we give our client’s the opportunity to explore what their claim might be worth. Our aim is to achieve an acknowledgement of the wrongs committed against our survivors and financial settlement through civil abuse action in the courts that meets our client’s individual circumstances. There is no perfect settlement and there are never guarantees in litigation but we will fight hard to ensure we get the best outcome we can for you.
This article was prepared with the assistance of Keziah Holdsworth*
If you have any questions or concerns please contact our Abuse Compensation Director Jon May on 02 6188 3600