Alice Springs youths are being transferred to Darwin as part of the NT government’s ’emergency’ prison plan

The Northern Territory government has announced it will permanently move young people from the Alice Springs Youth Detention Center to Darwin as part of an “emergency response” to bursting prisons.

The new Country Liberal Party government on Monday announced details of its plan to install around 800 new adult prison beds over the next four years, increasing the NT’s prison capacity by 37 per cent.

This includes transferring children and teenagers held in Alice Springs to Darwin’s new youth detention center in Holtze, which opens next month.

Adult female prisoners will then be transferred to the 48-bed Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre.

Deputy Chief Minister and Corrections Minister Gerard Maley said keeping all youth prisoners in one location would improve rehabilitation services.

“(It will) ensure that these children have a better choice in life and hopefully break the cycle of recidivism and become upstanding members of the community,” he said.

However, Justice Reform Initiative co-ordinator Kirsten Wilson said the plan to move young people from Alice Springs to Darwin, about 1,500 kilometers away, was “really worrying”.

“What this will likely lead to is a continued cycle of recidivism.”

Don Dale becomes an adult prison again

The government said it will also repurpose the Don Dale Youth Detention Center in Berrimah as temporary accommodation for 50 low-security adult male prisoners by December, once children and teenagers are in the new Holtze facility.

The government said this would add 200 adult beds to corrections capacity by March next year.

The 2017 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT recommended the closure of Don Dale by 2018.

On Monday, NT Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley said the facility would now close in December 2026 and the land would be reused for housing development.

The NT government’s other corrections projects include:

• A new 96-bed modular block at Alice Springs Correctional Center – a plan first announced by the previous Labor government in January.
• Two new work camps should be operational by the end of 2026, with capacity for 150 prisoners in Darwin and 50 in Katherine.
• A new 150-bed, multi-classification women’s prison will be built in Holtze by September 2028.
• New juvenile justice boot camps and bail facilities in Katherine and Tennant Creek.
• Paperbark’s existing drug and alcohol detox facility in Alice Springs will be converted into a 16-bed youth boot camp and bail centre. The previous government planned to disguise the location as a ‘therapeutic’ women’s prison.

Mr Varley said Don Dale could be repurposed with funds from the existing capital budget for corrections, while costs for other corrections projects would be included in next year’s budget.

Mixed feelings about the prison plan

Mr Varley welcomed the Government’s plan and said there was an urgent need to expand prisons in the area.

“(That) puts incredible strain on our staff and our facilities.”

He said about 150 prisoners were currently being held in guardhouses and “temporary facilities” in Darwin and Alice Springs due to severe overcrowding in NT prisons.

However, the NT government also plans to immediately return guardhouses to their intended use as police custody.

Community and Public Sector Union NT regional secretary David Villegas said he was assured there would be no job losses as a result of the transfer of juvenile detainees in Alice Springs.

“(They) will have the opportunity to take on new roles, including working at the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre, transporting young people between Alice Springs and Darwin, and potentially relocating to Darwin,” he said.

But Ms Wilson said it was still ‘unclear’ what would happen to children on remand in Alice Springs, who could make up up to 90 per cent of detainees.

“I imagine they will also be transferred to Darwin, it’s hard to see how that won’t happen,” she said.

She said the number of youth prisoners in Alice Springs was on the “lower end” but said this could change with new, stricter bail laws and the recent increase in the age of criminal responsibility.