A young person held on remand at the Northern Territory’s notorious Don Dale detention centre is in a stable condition after an undisclosed medical emergency.
NT authorities on Sunday reported the young person, who has since been identified as a 12-year-old girl, was flown to Melbourne for emergency medical treatment after an incident on Sunday morning.
Jeanette Kerr, the acting chief executive of the NT Department of Territory Families, which oversees youth justice, said the young person was expected to make a full recovery. Kerr said support had been offered to the young person’s family as well as to staff who responded to the incident.
Kerr had earlier said an investigation had begun and early indications were youth justice staff had acted appropriately and in the best interests of the child.
The ABC reported the detainee was a 12-year-old girl under the care of Territory Families, who was the subject of international media after police arrested her and put her in handcuffs in her Tennant Creek school classroom.
Guardian Australia has confirmed the girl’s identity, and understands she was taken into custody last week for alleged breaches of conditions related to previous offences.
On Saturday morning she presented as unwell. Guardian Australia was told she was transferred from Royal Darwin hospital to Melbourne for treatment after an x-ray, but was in a stable condition.
The office of the minister for Territory Families and the department would not comment about the girl’s identity, the medical episode, or the circumstances of her arrest and detention.
The department also refused to respond to claims by the girl’s grandmother that it was not giving her timely updates about her granddaughter.
The NT government is under increasing pressure to make immediate changes to the youth justice system, which the acting chief minister, Nicole Manison, last week conceded was broken.
“Kids go into incarceration, they’re coming out then they’re reoffending and they’re ultimately ending up in adult prison systems,” she said. “That shows you the system is not working.”
A royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the NT was launched last year after ABC’s Four Corners broadcast footage of detainees being mistreated and abused.
It is scheduled to report in August, but detainee and victim’s advocates and sector workers have called for the government to act now, including for an increased investment in diversionary measures.
The number of detainees held in Don Dale has decreased over the past year, but youth crime in NT towns and cities remains a widespread concern as overall rates fluctuate in different areas and town centres.
High-profile cases continue to spark anger among the public, including an ongoing police hunt for a 17-year-old boy accused of stealing a car and crashing it in a Darwin suburb over the weekend.
Allegations of mistreatment at Don Dale continue to surface, including claims that another teenager was teargassed inside his cell in April last year. He is among a number of detainees party to a class action lawsuit against the NT government over their treatment.
“The public has every right to be concerned about community safety, as we all want to live in safer communities,” said Jared Sharp, the general manager of Jesuit Social Services.
“But we cannot allow fear and concern to overshadow the bigger picture – which is that youth crime rates across Australia are actually decreasing and there is no ‘youth crime epidemic’ as some would suggest.”
