Years after a royal commission recommended it close for good, the NT government has floated the possibility of keeping the notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre open. While children at the existing prison will be transferred to a new purpose-built facility, the Chief Minister says the existing centre could house adult prisoners.
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00:00 From tough talk on Don Dale just two months ago...
00:05 I want to wipe out of our lexicon and our language in the Northern Territory the word Don Dale.
00:10 To flagging a second life for the notorious facility.
00:13 Where the young people are now, that facility actually is in reasonably good nick.
00:18 We're looking at what we can use that facility for.
00:21 A fortnight after the most recent of many riots at the Darwin Detention Centre,
00:25 Eva Lawler says the jail could still be used once children are transferred out.
00:30 Whether that becomes a women's prison or whether it's used for something else,
00:35 that's some work that Commissioner Matt Varney is actually literally doing now.
00:40 Don Dale's closure was recommended by a 2017 Royal Commission
00:44 into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory.
00:48 Those advocating for the jail to be flattened are accusing the Chief Minister of a backflip.
00:53 She's contradicting herself. In February she said she was going to demolish Berrima Prison,
00:58 which is typical of political speak.
01:00 They're not telling the truth. They never have told the truth
01:03 and they've never treated our children with the truth
01:06 to a point they've placed them in Don Dale, a run-down men's prison that needs to be demolished.
01:12 Corrections telling the ABC its Commissioner is considering options for the facility's future.
01:18 It's deceitful. It's dishonest. Berrima should be demolished.
01:23 They shouldn't have kids in there and they shouldn't even be considering putting women in there.
01:27 Any conversion of Don Dale into an adult correctional facility is contingent on the opening
01:32 of a new therapeutic youth justice centre on Darwin's outskirts.
01:36 That new facility has been delayed several times,
01:39 but for now the government says it could open by the middle of this year.
01:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]