Nt the government to return spit hoods years after the training was forbidden

The Northern Territory government has marked that it will restore the use of spit hoods for young people in juvenile detention centers, almost eight years after the practice was forbidden.

The proposal is one of the various changes in the Youth Justice ACT 2005 and the regulations for juvenile justice 2006 that are expected to be introduced this week in the NT parliament and discussed by the Liberal Party (CLP) government.

In a statement on Monday, the government said that the proposed changes would also include:

• Courts can consider the “full criminal history” of an alleged youth offender when condemning for adult violations.
• Removing the detention principle as a last resort.
• More powers for juvenile officers to use spit hoods and reasonable power to “retain safety and prevent escapes”.
• Extensive powers for the correction commissioner to “manage emergency situations”.

During last year’s NT elections, the CLP promised to re -introduce the use of spit hoods for young people if they are chosen for the government.

On Monday, NT Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Corrections Gerard Maley said that the legislative changes would be submitted to Parliament as a matter of “urgency”, after the stabbing in the weekend of a 15-year-old boy in the Royal Darwin show.

Maley said that the “community has had enough” when it came to juvenile crime in the territory.

“This is another piece of legislation that we are going to do to ensure that territorians can go to work, go to the show and live safely in the Northern Territory,” he said.

NT Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley said that the proposed changes were about guaranteeing “safety and safety” for staff and young people in juvenile detention centers.

“These changes this week are about ensuring that our employees have the tools, the powers and procedures to ensure that the environment is safe,” he said.

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“We want to see a change in the past where our officers are exposed to risks, our officers are exposed to mistreatment and damage, and our juvenile detention centers have been damaged and destroyed.

In 2016, controversy about the use of spit hoods of the NT received considerable media attention after an ABC Four Corners report in the Don Dale Youth Detention Center, which led to the then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who announced a Royal Commission in juvenile law and child protection on the territory.

In 2017, after the formal approval of the federal government of a protocol from the United Nations against torture and inhumane penalties, the NT government stopped using spit hoods and limitation chairs in youth detention centers.

However, it was only in 2022 that the use of spit hoods for young people in police detention was also prohibited by the then employment government, although the prohibition was never formalized in legislation.

In a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for the NT Police Force (NTPF) confirmed that SPIT Hoods had been made available again since October 2024 to use young people in police houses and cells.

“The NTPF has a strict policy for their use,” said the spokesperson.

A ‘punitive attack’ on children, proponents say

NT Children’s commissioner Shahleena Musk said that the proposed changes to the Youth Justice Act “failed” by the government “to meet important stakeholders, including legal and social service experts”.

“It goes against all the proof of what really works to try to reduce challenging behaviors, especially in freedom,” she said.

“We are the only jurisdiction that now goes back to the use of spit hoods for children.

Mrs. Musk said that she was also concerned about the planned change to ensure that detention was no longer a final resort.

“[It] Is against international law, it is against children’s rights. It can lead to unjust dispositions by the court, which is unable to balance the needs of that child against other considerations, “she said.

Opposition leader Selena Uibo labeled the government’s decision a “reactive, knee-jerk reaction” that would not have a “holistic impact when it comes to improving the safety of the community”.

“Everything that these millions and millions of dollars have shown royal committees or reports not to do, the CLP does,” she said.

In a statement, the national network of prisoner and previously locked up women and girls also condemned the proposed changes and called for “the urgent withdrawal of this legislation”.

“These proposed changes represent a punitive attack on the rights, dignity and the lives of children in the northern territory,” said Debbie Kilroy OAM, Chief Executive of Sisters.

Mrs. Kilroy labeled the reintroduction of spit hoods as a “grotesque failure of leadership” and mentioned the interstate cases of Wayne Fella Morrison and Selesa Taifaifa-Die both died after incidents with regard to the use of spit-caps-as examples of their “deadly consequences”.

“Let’s be clear: spit hoods are torture instruments. They are used to break down, check and remain silent,” said Mrs. Kilroy.

Mrs. Kilroy also criticized the planned removal of the detention principle as a last resort.

“Many of the children who appear before the courts are themselves victims – victims of violence, poverty, neglect, racism and state failure,” she said.

“They are not born ‘perpetrators’, they are criminalized by a system that has never been designed to protect them.”

The proposed changes will be introduced in the NT parliament on Tuesday.