00:00For Naurunga and Nurundjeri youth worker Joshua Brown, mentoring young people caught up in
00:08the system is more than a job.
00:10I was with Ward of the State and so I could really relate to the young people that are
00:17away from their family, their community and their country and their culture.
00:23Until recently, the 33-year-old was a cultural mentor at the Alice Springs Youth Detention
00:28Centre.
00:29He's one of several workers impacted by the sudden closure of the facility's school.
00:35A lot of people are upset to see the kids go.
00:36Lots of people have worked here for a while, just watching them grow up and trying to support
00:37them, give them the skills to make different choices.
00:38It's been something that we've all really valued.
00:46The NT government's decision to close the school follows an emergency prison reshuffle
00:51announced last year that saw young people in detention moved from Alice Springs to Darwin.
00:57The loss of the education centre, another wound for those on the ground.
01:03The concern is the lack of clear, consistent planning and communication around what's happening
01:09and the impact that that then has on children and young people that are in the system.
01:13The school was amazing.
01:14Everybody that worked there, like I've never met better teachers who knew how to work with
01:20young traumatised people.
01:23A spokesperson for the NT education minister says staff at the Owen Springs School were
01:28informed in October that young people remanded in custody or serving a sentence would be
01:33moved from Alice to Darwin and that the juvenile detention centre is now being turned into
01:39a women's prison.
01:41Another gap in the local program as prison populations grow.
Comments