841. Don Dale Youth Detention Centre

The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre has been hit with a lot of negative press coverage as result of photos leaking from the prison showing children in shackles and forced to have their heads covered by hoods. In year 2000 a boy died there.

Plans have been made to close the detention centre down but it has not been implemented yet. Maybe the authorities believe that the entire matter would be forgotten once other media topics take the front pages over. All the inmates lately seems to be Aboriginal.

Australia have recently introduced legislation to prevent foreign NGO from taking interest in the facility because they demand that social media like Facebook that activists use as communication have to pay too much for quoting articles from Australian newspapers, so this tool can no longer be used to inform people abroad about conditions in Australia.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• Disturbing Images Surface Of Juvenile Prisoners Being Abused In Australia (NPR news)
• Don Dale Youth Detention Centre (Wikipedia)
• Tear-gassing of teens in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre was unlawful, High Court rules (ABC News Australia)