Jack was locked away for 60 days. The offense of the 13-year-old: he had punched a peer in an argument. When he threatened to call the police, the young Aborigine snatched the smartphone from his hand. Jack was arrested in the Australian state of Queensland for assault and theft and spent a total of two months in a juvenile prison without trial or conviction – much of it in solitary confinement.
The case made headlines Down Under and drew attention to human rights activists. The story is not an isolated case: the way the Australian judiciary treats young people has long been criticized and would be unthinkable in Germany. The reason: on the fifth continent, the age of criminal responsibility is ten years. Most of them are still in primary school. In Germany – as in many other European countries – children who are not yet 14 years old are considered innocent.
However, the death of twelve-year-old Luise from Freudenberg triggered a debate in Germany about the age of criminal responsibility. The two alleged perpetrators are 12 and 13 years old respectively and will not be prosecuted. At the other end of the world, however, children are not only locked up, but – as in the case of Jack – apparently also deprived of basic rights.
Between February 1 and February 23, the child was not allowed to leave his cell at the Cleveland Youth Detention Center (CYDC) in Townsville, Australian broadcaster ABC reported. That’s 22 days of solitary confinement for a slap in the face. Apart from that, Jack was only allowed to go out from time to time. According to his mother, he was even denied drinking water for a long time.
“He told me he was so distraught that the security forces wouldn’t let him drink anything that he flooded his cell,” she was quoted as saying. This is not an isolated case either: according to the ABC, it often happens that children in detention block the toilets and flood their cells out of frustration.
The treatment of Jack violated not only Queensland’s human rights law, which requires inmates to be treated with humanity and respect, but also international standards, said the state’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall. “The rules state that detained children and adults should have access to fresh air and exercise for at least two hours a day, and that was clearly not the case here.”
It was just a disagreement between two 13-year-olds, which according to video recordings lasted just 30 seconds, said Jack’s lawyer Tim Grau. He doesn’t want to downplay the whole thing, Jack punched the other guy and shouldn’t have done it. “But then locking him up for a total of 60 days is cruel and inappropriate.”
What is striking is the particularly high proportion of young indigenous people who are put in juvenile detention. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Indigenous people make up just 5.8 per cent of all youth between the ages of 10 and 17, but make up almost half of all young people in prison. The majority – like Jack – were not convicted.
“Aboriginal children tend to come from remote and socio-economically disadvantaged areas,” wrote the human rights organization Amnesty International. There are far more arrests there than in big cities. “Most are arrested for simple offences: property damage, car theft, the occasional burglary. Or simply for roaming the streets at night.”
Like other organizations, Amnesty is calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14. Australia would then follow most European countries – with two exceptions, it said: “In Great Britain, ten is still the minimum age – as in Switzerland.”
In the article, Amnesty quotes criminologist Chris Cunneen as saying: “If we truly believed that 10-year-olds had the knowledge and sophistication to make life-changing decisions about what is right and wrong (…) then we would too in treat other areas of life differently.” Then the age at which children can have sex, leave school or sign contracts must be significantly reduced.
But above all, and experts agree on this, simply locking someone away only rarely leads back to the right path. Those affected say the same, like 40-year-old Wayne Shaw. He was first imprisoned at the age of 13 for stealing a car. Since then, according to his own statements, he has been repeatedly delinquent and has been in court numerous times. In an interview with ABC, he said juvenile detention made him “a better criminal.”
In general, not much comes to light about the conditions in Australia’s prisons: when the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (SPT) wanted to get an idea in October, so many obstacles were put in its way that the visit was canceled.
Meanwhile, Jack’s mother is worried about her son. He came out of prison completely changed. Before he was very talkative, now he seems “stressed and closed”. It’s hard to get him used to a normal life again. “I would like to say to the government that it is ridiculous to do this to children.”
