More culturally appropriate responsive diversion programs are needed to help steer children away from incarceration, a new report from the University of Queensland has found.
Led by Mandandanji woman and UQ's School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work PhD candidate Lorelle Holland, "Resisting the incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: A scoping review to determine the cultural responsiveness of diversion programs," analysed the effectiveness of diversion programs across the country which attempt to keep First Nations children out of the youth justice system.
"In 2021 an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found Indigenous children aged 10-17 were 20 times more likely to end up incarcerated than non-Indigenous youths – we need to change that," Ms Holland said.
"We found only 10 out of 31 diversion programs addressed areas such as Indigenous connection to land, culture, spirituality, ancestry, family, and community."
The study, published in First Nations Health and Wellbeing - The Lowitja Journal, centred on Indigenous children between the ages of 10 and 18, who were involved in diversionary programs, including remand and bail support, homelessness assistance, as well as help for those appearing before specialist Indigenous courts.
"It is time to shift the discourse of tough-on-crime policy and disrupt the politicised detention of Indigenous Australian children, which inflicts state carceral social control and punitive punishment that is disproportionate in comparison with children of non-Indigenous descent," the report said.
Programs such as the Indigenous-led Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project in NSW, which takes a holistic, family focused and life-course approach to provide criminal justice prevention strategies at every life stage, were highly commended in the report.
It noted noted the program "achieved significant reductions in family violence and improvements in children's outcomes by targeting needs and being flexible within culturally responsive approaches".
Another program, the Nguudu Barndimanmanha Project in Western Australia, improved social and emotional wellbeing through equine assisted learning.
Qualified facilitators created therapeutic relationships between horses and Aboriginal children, and this has helped to improve the children's "sense of identity, self-worth, stress and anger management, self-regulation, re-engagement and attendance at school and socialisation".
"The best performing programs addressed the complex needs of Indigenous children by supporting their social and emotional wellbeing through Indigenous-led, place-based, and interdisciplinary collaboration, which resulted in a decline in offending behaviour," Ms Holland said.
"Our findings highlight the need to stop the incarceration of Indigenous children with complex needs and instead invest in funding, policy directions and public health to develop and deliver culturally responsive diversion approaches."
The report also highlighted some of the recent measures in Australia which have exacerbated the rate of Indigenous detention.
Queensland has twice suspended the state's Human Rights Act - to allow children to be housed in adult watch houses and be charged for breaching bail - as well as removing detention as a last resort for children —
In 2022, Victoria, Queensland and NSW blocked the UN torture prevention body from visiting places where people are detained, despite Australia being a signatory to the body.
Earlier this year, NSW passed bail laws which were widely opposed by Indigenous, Human Rights and even internal Labor groups as the government accepted it would see more, predominantly Indigenous, children incarcerated.
Dr Natasha Reid from UQ's Child Health Research Centre said current judicial processes did nothing to support or identify the complex needs of Indigenous children exposed to the justice system.
"Prevention strategies should be provided early in a child's life to promote holistic health and wellbeing, to address the underlying developmental and social needs associated with criminogenic risks," Dr Reid said.
"By increasing the focus on development and implementation of culturally responsive diversion programs, governments could raise the age of criminal responsibility and reduce punitive punishment, and harmful incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children."
The report argues that continued imprisonment will neither "address the harm experienced by victims of crime" nor begin to heal the "complex intergenerational trauma and complex needs experienced by Indigenous Australian children".
Instead, it said more funding, policy directions and public health responses aimed at developing and delivering culturally appropriate diversion approaches is needed.
"Culturally responsive approaches apply prevention strategies across the life-course and are enhanced by the inclusion of holistic, family focused, trauma aware and healing informed screening, assessment and therapeutic support to address self-determined social and emotional wellbeing that is defined by Indigenous Australian children and their communities," the report stated.
The full report can be found here.
