Pressure builds over Don Dale Detention Centre

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A community that treats its children like this, breaching the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, should be ashamed, Northern Territory Council of Social Service CEO Deborah Di Natale and Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT chief executive Dr John Paterson said.

“When you put kids in detention, what you are doing is guaranteeing the crime rates will go up. This creates reoffending. It doesn’t do anything to stop crime, it doesn’t do anything to keep the community safe.” – Deborah Di Natale

“Because they are children, because they’re of Aboriginal descent, people just don’t care. People have told me about young females in there having to shower with full clothing because there is no privacy, no doors on the bathing cubicles. How dare we accept that sort of behaviour being allowed and administered in this day and age?” – Dr John Paterson.