Most weeks, Donna Hunter makes the drive out to the old Berrimah prison, on the outskirts of Darwin.
The Nyikina woman is on a steely mission to have the once-condemned site - which now houses the Don Dale Youth Detention Facility - shut down for good.
“I just think, how can we be so cruel?,” Ms Hunter told NITV's The Point program.
“They're our future. Our children are our future.
“There's got to be other ways that we can look at helping children.”
The Don Dale Youth Detention Centre is now housed in the decommissioned old Berrimah adult prison. Source: NITV The Point
An emotional nightmare
The crumbling centre is still open, despite a Royal Commission four years ago recommending it be closed after revelations of shocking abuse and mistreatment.
The numbers of Aboriginal children and teenagers incarcerated there have climbed since the NT Government introduced tough laws which make it harder for young people to get bail.
At its peak in January, there were 47 young people inside.
Ms Hunter is one of many who know children that have experienced life inside, caught up in an emotional nightmare.
It was the day an 11-year-old was remanded to the centre in January that a devastated Ms Hunter decided she had no choice but to act.
Through tears, she had a conversation with veteran Northern Territory lawyer John Lawrence SC.
It was a talk that started a protest movement.
“That’s the day we thought, it's not good enough for an 11-year-old boy, even a 10-year-old boy, children at all, to go into Don Dale,” she says.
“All of a sudden he's not here, he's actually in a cell on his own scared.
“He’d be horrified and that would increase the trauma that he's been suffering.
“It just didn't make sense to me. It was just a horrible day that day.”
Veteran NT lawyer John Lawrence SC will be representing the 11-year-old boy at a hearing this week, arguing he is too young to be held criminally responsible. Source: NITV The Point
A legal challenge
Veteran NT barrister John Lawrence SC is now acting for the young boy - and today will challenge his detention, arguing he is too young to be held criminally responsible.
The Royal Commission recommended the age of criminal responsibility be lifted to at least 12.
Mr Lawrence says the system is broken.
“We've got the highest imprisonment rate in the world, it’s increasing every day," he says.
“And now we've got this crisis on our hands with our children again, despite having Four Corners exposing it, despite having a whole Royal Commission confirming the worst.
“It’s just getting worse and worse, recommendations have been ignored. Politicians continue to lie, and yet the figures go up and now we hear of large numbers of self harm.
“Suicide attempts of children, children who are all already psychologically harmed and placed in conditions which can only make it worse.”
Activists gathered outside the NT's Don Dale youth prison to demand an end to the continued detention of children in December 2021 Source: AAP Image/Aaron Bunch
Like 'a dungeon'
Donna Hunter says the former prison is no place for a child.
“When you get locked up by yourself in a two by three cell, I mean, a dungeon,” she says.
“I couldn't even imagine a child, a young child, any child to be sitting in that room."
She says the government should be providing greater support to young people, many of whom had experienced traumatic beginnings to their lives.
“The kids who have been affected…whether it's domestic violence in the household, a whole range of things that they suffered immensely through that," she says.
“They still remember it and haven't gone through any help, treatment or been assessed.
“They don't need to be incarcerated. They need to be rehabilitated. Sadly, that doesn't happen.”
Rehabilitation was one of the recommendations of the Royal Commission.
Northern Territory Attorney General and Minister for Justice Selena Uibo says change is underway. Source: NITV The Point
A purpose-built new facility
Northern Territory Attorney General Selena Uibo says change is underway.
“We have those values, we have the recommendations for the Royal Commission and we have been implementing that as a Territory Labor government,” she says.
“We will decommission Don Dale as a center itself based on the work of the Royal Commission those couple of years ago, and we'll be building a purpose built new facility that focuses on therapeutic programs for young people.”
But those directly impacted by the harsh laws, or the front line, say they can’t see any signs of improvement.
Donna Hunter will continue her protests until the children are removed from the facility.
"We want Don Dale closed now. We want emergency intervention and close that down. Now.”
* For more on this story, tune into NITV's current affairs program The Point tonight at 7.30pm, or later on SBS or SBS On Demand.
