00:02These youth justice experts come from different parts of the world, but share the same goal.
00:07They're not here to tell Australia what to do, but they're sharing their experiences of how they were like us.
00:14The group visiting the Bankshire Hill Detention Centre, which has been the subject of great scrutiny,
00:20with two juvenile deaths in custody in less than a year.
00:23While saying they see change underway, a warning of mistakes made in the US 30 years ago.
00:29In the 90s we called kids names, we vilified them, we locked up 109,000 of them in juvenile facilities
00:37and 15,000 of them in adult prisons and jails. I fear Australia's going in that direction.
00:45Urging community alternatives to custody.
00:4875% of the young people there are on remand and they're there for a few weeks.
00:54What does it do for public safety to bring a child into custody for a few weeks?
01:01The government has invested more than $150 million to fund a new youth detention centre,
01:07replacing the controversial Unit 18 for the most high-risk detainees.
01:12I will put all that money into community to avoid kids coming to custody and to the youth justice system.
01:22The approach in Spain has seen 85% of youth offenders reintegrated to the community.
01:28In Spain the child is a child before an offender and that is the base of our model.
01:33We need to start with the principle of dignity and respect.
01:38Juveniles in custody are actually out of their cells a lot more than they used to be.
01:42There's those programs that can assist them. So a lot has changed and a lot is being done.
01:47The government also highlighting a 40% drop in inmate numbers at Bankshire Hill in the last decade.
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