The Northern Territory Chief Minister and Territory Families Minister have toured the redeveloped Alice Springs youth detention centre, which is expected to open in coming weeks.
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00:00 It's a milestone reflecting a grim reality.
00:05 The Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre expansion is nearing completion to keep up with the
00:10 growing need to house young offenders.
00:13 We want young people to thrive in the Northern Territory, to have great lives in the Northern
00:18 Territory, to be young people that can contribute to our communities but to be working in the
00:24 Territory.
00:25 It's hoped the 22-person facility, designed with access to education and rehabilitation
00:30 services will give young offenders the best chance to turn their lives around and allow
00:36 those forcibly sent away to Darwin's Dondale Detention Centre to return to Central Australia.
00:42 I'm really committed to bringing them back to country so that they're closer to family
00:45 as soon as possible and we look forward to that occurring over the coming weeks.
00:49 The facility was cast into the spotlight following a 2016 Royal Commission which highlighted
00:55 a series of violent incidents and issues of overcrowding.
00:59 The NT government is promising a system-wide review of youth justice will be completed
01:03 after the August election but critics say it's little more than empty platitudes.
01:10 It was Labor who made the changes to the Youth Justice Act back in 2019 and the community
01:15 is now seeing the consequence of those changes with increasing youth crime, increasing anti-social
01:22 issues.
01:23 It's like there's a cliff running through Alice Springs and what we're doing is we're
01:27 buying more and more ambulances to put at the bottom of it whereas we should be putting
01:31 a fence at the top.
01:33 When the Northern Territory Government first announced the redevelopment of the facility
01:37 in 2020 it said it would cost $13 million but almost four years later and following
01:43 a redesign to expand capacity, the cost of the refurbishment has blown out to more than
01:48 $30 million.
01:49 The Chief Minister did not give a date for the closure of Dondale but said it would occur
01:53 as soon as possible.
01:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]