The overwhelming majority of Indigenous children held in custody are unsentenced, new data shows, with First Nations young people continuing to be incarcerated at disproportionate rates.
The latest Productivity Commission report, released on Wednesday evening, revealed more than 70 per cent of incarcerated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in every state and territory were unsentenced.
Nationally, each First Nations child in detention spent an average of 57 days in custody before sentencing. In Queensland — which incarcerates more Indigenous children than any other jurisdiction — that figure rose to an average of 96.3 days, while in Victoria it exceeded 80 days per child.
…
Legal advice obtained last year by the Justice and Equity Centre from barristers Kate Eastman and Emma Dunlop found the Commonwealth could intervene under section 51(xxix) of the Constitution to meet its international human rights obligations.
Nonetheless, the federal government has been reluctant to intervene, arguing youth justice is a matter for the states and territories.
