Should 10-year-olds be locked up in Parkville?

Ten-year-olds aren’t allowed to create a Facebook account, work at McDonalds or consume alcohol, but in Australia they can still be prosecuted for a criminal offence.

Every year around 600 children aged between 10 and 13 are incarcerated in Australia, despite the international standard for criminal responsibility being 14.

Unbeknown to most, some of those kids end up locked up right in the heart of Melbourne at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct.

Former head of Medical Services Dr Mike Creati said that during his time at the Parkville precinct he saw kids as young as 11 locked up.

“There are kids in custody who have gone out with friends and the friends have stolen a car, and the child is told to get in the car or they are out of the friendship group,” Dr Creati told Melbourne’s University’s Pursuit.

“Impulsively, the child jumps in the car and if they are older than ten years of age they can then be charged with a crime because that’s the law. They can end up behind bars.”

As of May 17, there were three young people aged between 10 and 13 at the Parkville Precinct, all of whom were aged 13 years and on remand.

However, the correctional facility is mandated to accommodate females aged between 10 and 21 and males aged between 10 and 17.

Dr Creati said that aside from children not having developed their pre-frontal cortexes which are responsible for impulse control, many of them also suffered from neurocognitive deficits.

“Children who come into contact with the criminal justice system often have neurocognitive challenges such as intellectual disabilities, foetal alcohol syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or mental disorderslike depression and anxiety related to trauma,” Dr Creati said.

“These children need care and support, not criminalisation.”

There are a number of support programs intended to aid rehabilitation and provide life skills at the Parkville facility.

These include sports and education programs, as well as the STREAT café partnership where children can work at the café on leave from the centre to help them gain hospitality experience.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesperson said that while there were “very few children under the age of 14” in Victoria’s youth justice facilities, the kids were supported through numerous programs.

“While in custody children and young people have access to education programs, through Parkville College school and youth offending programs, including the Adolescent Violence Intervention Program, to address offending related needs,” the spokesperson said.

“They are also supported to address mental health issues through services delivered by Orygen and take part in other structured programs to prepare them for community integration.”

Despite this, the Parkville precinct has been the centre of many controversies over the past decade.

In November 2016, a 17-hour riot at the hands of 28 offenders armed with makeshift weapons broke out that caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage.

Four units were destroyed, security doors weighing hundreds of kilos were torn down, and dorms were flooded causing so much damage that it took months to repair.

Afterwards there was an inquiry into the facility by the University of South Australia which found that understaffing, workload allocation and a lack of training made it difficult to control violent prisoners.

Since then, there has been multiple assaults on staff at the Parkville facility, including an incident in March this year where a worker was bashed by three inmates and had to be taken to hospital with facial injuries.

A department spokesperson said that in order to deal with the understaffing issue that had caused violence in the past, the Department of Justice was also utilising the new purpose-built facility at Cherry Creek.

“Violence of any kind is not tolerated in our youth justice facilities, and there’s nothing more important than the safety of our staff and young people,” the spokesperson said.

“That’s why we’ve invested more than $1.8 billion in transforming the youth justice system, including through the Youth Justice Custodial Workforce Plan which paves the way for the strong, skilled, and valued workforce that is vital to the safe operation of our youth justice centres.”

As a nation, Australia is still lagging well behind on the issue of criminal responsibility.

In January, 31 the United Nations member states including Canada, France, Germany and Norway called on Australia to raise the age at a UN meeting.

The ACT is expected to be the first of the states and territories to raise the age of criminal responsibility and is expected to introduce a bill by the end of this year.

City of Melbourne Cr Olivia Ball said that although the issue was not in the remit of local government she was supportive of raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

“Fourteen is the absolute minimum, according to the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of the Child, so Australia is very poor by international standards,” Cr Ball said.

“Our criminal codes must be revised to ensure no child below the age of 14 enters the criminal justice system.”

“Below that age, problems of misconduct, however serious, ought to be treated as a welfare matter, with increased support and resources for families, carers and schools.”

In March, the Greens introduced a failed bill which would have raised the criminal age of responsibility from 10 to 14.

Greens spokesman for health and justice, Dr Tim Read, said criminalising children and locking them up had lifelong effects on their mental health and development.

“The medical evidence is clear – children’s brains are still developing at this age, giving us an opportunity to redirect a criminal trajectory for everyone’s benefit,” Mr Read said.

“Children need to be kept out of the criminal justice system for as long as possible, for their own good and for ours.”

“Our bill would stop pushing kids as young as 10 through the school-to-prison pipeline, ensuring they receive treatment and support instead.”

The bill was knocked back by the Andrews Government and Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien called the bill a “bad idea”.

“Under the Greens bill a 13-year-old could engage in a knife homicide and get off scot-free, “Mr O’Brien said.

“That is not a way to keep Victorians safe and that is not justice.” •