Teen orphan on mandatory sentence found hanged in jail
Source: AAP | Published: Thursday February 10, 5:16 PM
A 15-year-old Aboriginal boy nearing the end of a 28-day jail term today
became the first person to die in custody while serving a mandatory
sentence in the Northern Territory.
The Groote Eylandt orphan was found unconscious with a bed sheet around his
neck in his room at Darwin's Don Dale juvenile detention centre at 6.30pm
last night, NT Correctional Services Minister Daryl Manzie said.
He did not regain consciousness and died in hospital at 3.12am today.
'We believe this is the first death under a mandatory sentence,' a
spokesman for Mr Manzie said.
Under the NT's mandatory controversial sentencing regime, which targets
property offences, juveniles aged 15 or 16 face 28 days in jail or
diversionary programs for a second property crime.
The dead boy had been found guilty of breaking into the Anurugu Community
Council offices on Groote Eylandt and stealing pens, pencils and texts
worth $50 last November.
He was also convicted of breaking into the local primary school and
stealing oil and paint worth $40 and of being with people who broke five
glass louvres worth $50.
A government spokesman said the boy was just five days away from ending his
28-day sentence yesterday when he was sent to his single room for 15
minutes for refusing to help clean up after a meal.
He was left in the room with the door unlocked and was discovered
unconscious five minutes later, the spokesman said.
Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh today ordered a coronial investigation into
the death while the NT government said there were no suspicious circumstances.
However, director for the Miwatj Aboriginal Legal Service Selwyn Hausman
said he had been concerned about the boy as recently as last week when he
visited him in jail.
'He was still distressed,' Mr Hausman said.
Mr Hausman claimed the juvenile's offence would probably not have involved
a prison sentence if the controversial 1997 laws, currently subject to a
Senate inquiry, did not exist.
'Within the context of the communities, they (the offences) are annoying,
but not something to go to jail for.'
Mr Hausman said the boy's parents had died.
'He was in a situation where he was at loose ends within the community,' he
said.
The news of the death was met with public outcry, with the territory's ALP
opposition calling it an evil law which must be repealed.
Law Society president Jon Tippett said: 'Today is a day of shame for all
Territorians.
'We stand in breach of our international obligations at law and we stand in
breach of our obligation to children.'
Greens Senator Bob Brown, who introduced a bill to the Senate to override
mandatory sentences for juveniles in the NT, called for Prime Minister John
Howard to intervene and back his bill.
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