Cognitive disabilities are overlooked in juvenile detention

Widespread lack of police discretion is creating a confused, unjust and discriminatory juvenile detention system in Australia, according to University of New South Wales Criminology Professor Eileen Baldry.

Professor Baldry has expressed concern for the profound link between juveniles in detention and their often overlooked cognitive disabilities: “We are locking up kids who have difficulty in their cognitive lives, communication difficulties, reading difficulties. We need for those kids to be checked, not just to be taken to the police station and locked up.”

Professor Baldry has been an academic in the field of Criminology since 1993 and has spoken out about the recent uncovering of footage and subsequent nation-wide discussion concerning the mistreatment and discrimination occurring in juvenile detention centres.

“There should be an option that police really check for whether or not you have a disability, a cognitive disability…70 per cent of young people in detention in Australia today have under 80 IQ,” stated Baldry in a recent interview. She believes that the Australian correctional system has been operating with an underlying fault which fails to take into account the cognitive impairments suffering by a majority of young people.

According to Professor Baldry, this misunderstanding is becoming commonplace and even exacerbated in Queensland and Northern Territory detention centres such as the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre due to the lack of police discretion towards indigenous people.

Dylan Voller, an indigenous teenager whose situation within Don Dale was recently unveiled by ABC’s Four Corners in July, suffers from cognitive disabilities which led to a myriad of issues between Don Dale officers and Voller in 2014.

Professor Baldry has claimed that alongside Voller’s unearthed experiences in detention, there is similar evidence from the Northern Territory of Aboriginal people suffering from “severe cognitive disabilities”.

Lack of understanding and communication between authorities and imprisoned juveniles is one of many compounding issues which contribute to high rates of recidivism, says Baldry.

“The likelihood that we will continue, if not increase, the recidivism rate, that is repeat offending rate, grows. It also means that we are setting ourselves up as a community, as taxpayers, to continue to pay huge amounts of money [to correctional facilities].”

In light of the July footage leak from inside Don Dale, a month earlier Corrections Minister David Elliott announced a $3.8 billion capacity boost for NSW prisons to eradicate overcrowding. Professor Baldry has condemned this funding as a “disaster”, as it only increases the rate of recidivism and decreases the rate of prisoners leaving the correctional system entirely.

The funding fuels statistics that see Australia as having almost 200 prisoners for every 100,000 people. Although juveniles in detention only account for a minority of Australians in prison, approximately 50 per cent of these juveniles are of indigenous descent. This presents a national issue when considering only 3 per cent of children in Australia are of Aboriginal descent.

Professor Baldry claims there are intersecting issues that lead to these statistics, including an ongoing culture of racism and poverty. Despite such striking numbers, the government is lacking in providing public support in areas such as education and health in indigenous communities.

The government’s current line of approach is through the proposed Royal Commission into juvenile detention centres which was announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as a response to the Don Dale footage.

“One of the problems with Royal Commissions is that they can make recommendations but they have absolutely no power in regard to implementing the recommendations.” Professor Baldry is cynical about the overall effectiveness of the Royal Commission, as previous Royal Commissions regarding the Aboriginal population were wholly unsuccessful in producing significant change.

“What I am not convinced of is that any government is really going to take the steps to make the kind of changes that will be needed.”