A WAGGA indigenous community leader has called for a widening of a proposed royal commission into the mistreatment of young people in a Northern Territory juvenile detention centre.
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Aunty Isabel Reid said she was disgusted by what she saw on a Four Corners program on Monday night.
It included footage of a hooded teenager strapped to a chair and six boys being tear-gassed in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin.
“It’s disgusting; how long has it been going on?” Aunty Isabel said.
“I know boys can do the wrong thing, but they have been treated like animals.
“Regardless of what they have done, it’s not right.
“I don’t have the words to express how I feel.”
Aunty Isabel wants the royal commission to go national, although Attorney-General George Brandis has dismissed the option.
“What we have seen is the tip of the iceberg, I would say,” Aunty Isabel said.
Griffith City Council’s Aboriginal liaison officer, Roger Penrith, said he was shocked and angered by what he saw on Four Corners.
“I felt so sorry for those poor boys,” said Mr Penrith, stressing he was speaking personally.
He said it was fairly evident the system was failing the detainees.
“These are people that are supposed to be trusted and replied upon,” he said of the Don Dale workers
Alarmed by high incarceration rates of indigenous youth, Mr Penrith called for more diversionary programs, such as at Tirkandi Inaburra near Coleambally, where at-risk youngsters aged between 12 and 15 are shown ways to become resilient young men.
“They come back different boys,” Mr Penrith said.
Anglicare provides support for at-risk youth in Wagga.
The service’s general manager, Brad Addison, said the organisation supported the royal commission and urged wide consultation with indigenous and other community leaders.
“All research supports the fact that working with young people in the community, rather than locking them up, gives them a better chance of reforming,” Mr Addison said.