New rules restricting bail reviews for children arrested outside normal work hours, mean some youth offenders are spending multiple nights in police watch houses for crimes they would never usually be remanded for. It is another consequence of a justice system under increasing strain from rising prisoner numbers, with human rights and legal experts sounding the alarm.
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00:00Three nights in a police watch house, that's the unofficial penalty for some Territory
00:08children caught up in crime.
00:11I've been seeing these young people on a Monday morning, they've not slept for three days,
00:16they've barely eaten.
00:18Sleeping next to toilet bowls and people using the toilet, lights on 24-7, I mean it's, you
00:24know, just beggars belief that in a country like Australia that we are treating our people
00:29like this.
00:30Under new rules introduced this month, NT local court judges are no longer available
00:36for after hours bail reviews for children taken into custody.
00:40When remand warrants aren't signed it means that the young person can't go to the detention
00:43centre.
00:44So as a result they're staying in the watch house overnight.
00:47Earlier this month, a 15-year-old girl was caught shoplifting $60 worth of items and
00:53riding as a passenger in a stolen car.
00:56She spent three nights in the Palmerston watch house.
01:00On her own in a cell, listening to other prisoners screaming and shouting, the lights on 24-7,
01:06you can't sleep.
01:07Youth crime is a major issue in the Northern Territory, with business owners and residents
01:12frequently venting their frustrations over extensive property damage and stolen vehicles.
01:18But human rights experts say detaining children in watch houses won't solve the issue.
01:23In fact, it'll have the opposite effect.
01:26We're in fact training these children to become better and better criminals.
01:31We are making the problem worse at great expense to the community.
01:37An NT court spokesman says the local court is monitoring the impact of its service cuts,
01:42prompted by growing pressure from increasing prisoner numbers.