Govt urged to act on Indigenous youth detention rate
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The National Children's and Youth Law Centre says the Federal Government must address the high detention rate for young Indigenous people.
A report by the Institute of Health and Welfare shows the number of children in juvenile detention has risen to a four-year high.
Nearly half of them are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.
Law Centre director James McDougall says Indigenous children are 14 times more likely to enter the justice system than other children and he says the Commonwealth needs to do something about that.
"There have been some isolated programs that have been funded by the Attorney-General's department," he said.
"But comprehensive understanding that keeping kids out of detention is actually a community-building strategy and something that we need to invest in is something that hasn't reached the mainstream policy-makers."
The report shows 415 more children were detained in New South Wales in 2007 than in 2003.
In Victoria, 85 more were detained over that time, while rates in Queensland and South Australia fell.
Mr McDougall says the New South Wales Government has been focusing on police and the courts to solve youth justice problems.
"The community wants to know that crime levels are going to drop, but it's also about being clear about how that happens, and locking people up doesn't do that, it increases criminals that are going to be offending on an ongoing basis," he said.
