The Northern Territory government has closed a long-running school at the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre. Central Australian social workers and teachers say it is a blow to young people and the community. The NT government says all youth detainees at Alice Springs are being transferred to Darwin and it is working with the school's principal to transition staff to other roles.
Category
đŸ“º
TVTranscript
00:00For Naurunga and Nurundjeri youth worker Joshua Brown, mentoring young people caught up in
00:08the system is more than a job.
00:10I was with Ward of the State and so I could really relate to the young people that are
00:17away from their family, their community and their country and their culture.
00:23Until recently, the 33-year-old was a cultural mentor at the Alice Springs Youth Detention
00:28Centre.
00:29He's one of several workers impacted by the sudden closure of the facility's school.
00:35A lot of people are upset to see the kids go.
00:36Lots of people have worked here for a while, just watching them grow up and trying to support
00:37them, give them the skills to make different choices.
00:38It's been something that we've all really valued.
00:46The NT government's decision to close the school follows an emergency prison reshuffle
00:51announced last year that saw young people in detention moved from Alice Springs to Darwin.
00:57The loss of the education centre, another wound for those on the ground.
01:03The concern is the lack of clear, consistent planning and communication around what's happening
01:09and the impact that that then has on children and young people that are in the system.
01:13The school was amazing.
01:14Everybody that worked there, like I've never met better teachers who knew how to work with
01:20young traumatised people.
01:23A spokesperson for the NT education minister says staff at the Owen Springs School were
01:28informed in October that young people remanded in custody or serving a sentence would be
01:33moved from Alice to Darwin and that the juvenile detention centre is now being turned into
01:39a women's prison.
01:41Another gap in the local program as prison populations grow.