Content Warning: This statement contains distressing details of child abuse in detention.
A child was starved in isolation. That should end the debate.
First Peoples Disability Network breaks silence on latest abuse, linking it to broken promises of Royal Commission and a youth justice system that criminalises disability, and why it’s time to abolish solitary practices for kids and deliver real disability justice reform.
The First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN) today condemns the horrific treatment of a First Nations teenager with a disability at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre as an act of torture and a predictable outcome of the Northern Territory Government’s deliberate reversal of critical youth justice reforms.
An Aboriginal teenager with disability was kept alone in a cell at Don Dale for 84 hours. During that time, youth justice staff withheld food and refused medication as leverage to force compliance, conduct the NT Children’s Commissioner says breached youth justice law and amounted to “prohibited actions.”
This is our first public comment on the case. It will not be our last.
Recent media reports have revealed that a young Aboriginal person with a “well-documented history of traumatic childhood experiences” and mental health conditions including depression and ADHD was held in isolation for 84 hours, 12 hours beyond the legal limit. During this unlawful confinement, he was denied food and potentially his prescribed medication as a coercion tactic by staff to force him to move cells.
This incident is not an isolated failing of a broken system. It is the direct consequence of a system re-engineered to be punitive. The NT Government’s Bail and Youth Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 has systematically dismantled the safeguards recommended by the 2017 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, removing the principle of detention as a last resort and creating a permissive environment for such abuses to occur. This latest horror is the bitter reality of a policy that punishes vulnerable children.
If we can starve a disabled child into compliance inside a government facility, after a royal commission recommended the closure of that facility eight years ago, then the system is not in crisis. It is working as designed, and it is hurting our kids.
What happened
The NT Office of the Children’s Commissioner tabled its investigation into “VC1” last week. It found the child was unlawfully separated for 84 hours in April 2024 and that staff used the denial of food and medication as a coercive tactic. The period exceeded the legal maximum; safeguards and reporting requirements were ignored. The Commissioner concluded staff actions breached section 153 of the Youth Justice Act (prohibited actions).
This is not an aberration. Australia promised the UN it would prevent torture and ill-treatment by opening all places of detention to independent preventive inspection (OPCAT). Yet the UN suspended its 2022 visit after being blocked from several sites, and national torture-prevention experts (the Australian NPM network) have repeatedly warned about NT youth justice laws re-permitting harmful practices like spit hoods and expanding isolation powers.
The physical building has changed, Don Dale is no longer used for youth detention, and a new facility now operates in Darwin, but the culture and the legislative settings that enable harm have not changed enough. That is the real problem to fix.
Disability is the missing piece in youth justice
First Nations children are dramatically over-represented in detention, and disability is everywhere in the story. The landmark Banksia Hill study found 89% of young detainees had at least one severe domain of neurodevelopmental impairment; 36% met criteria for FASD, and most had never been diagnosed before incarceration.
The Disability Royal Commission told governments to end restrictive practices and solitary-like conditions for people with disability and to build disability-competent, therapeutic responses in and beyond justice. The NDIS Review added a practical blueprint: foundational supports in community, and far tighter interfaces so people aren’t abandoned at the justice door. The evidence exists.
Implementation is what’s missing.
“You don’t keep kids safe by starving them,” Damian Griffis, FPDN CEO.
“Aboriginal children with disability are being failed long before they ever reach a cell. But once they are detained, the State owes them an absolute duty of care. You don’t keep kids safe by starving them; you don’t build community safety by isolating them for days,” said Damian Griffis, CEO of First Peoples Disability Network. “We need a wholesale reset: no solitary practices for children, disability-informed care, and lawful, transparent systems that actually help kids heal.”
“This is not administrative failure, this is criminal conduct that would result in prosecution if perpetrated by private citizens,” said Tennille Lamb, FPDN Director of Policy & Strategy. “The deliberate infliction of suffering through food deprivation on a teenager with disability meets every legal definition of torture. The fact that it occurs in a state facility makes it state-sanctioned torture.”
Torture Defined: Meeting International Legal Thresholds
Although there has been no official finding of torture, FPDN strongly argues that the VC1 case meets all four elements of the CAT/CIDT definition of torture:
- Severe physical/mental pain or suffering: 84-hour isolation with food deprivation
- Intentionally inflicted: Used deliberately as coercion tactic
- For specific purpose: To force compliance with cell move
- By state official: Perpetrated by government-employed youth justice staff
By the CAT/CIDT standard, short for the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, treatment that causes severe pain, fear or humiliation in settings involving public authority or state-regulated care can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Because Australia has ratified CAT (and OPCAT), governments and the providers they regulate are obliged to prevent such practices and to ensure independent, effective investigations and redress when they occur.
“When staff systematically use food deprivation against a child with disability over 84 hours, they are not managing behaviour, they are committing torture. This should result in criminal prosecution,” Mr Griffis said.
International Accountability: Australia’s Global Obligations
Australia faces increasing international scrutiny, with the Human Rights Commissioner appearing before the UN Committee Against Torture and the Committee specifically citing Australian youth detention practices as violations.
The case of VC1 may have consequences such as:
- UN Special Rapporteur investigation into torture in Australian detention
- Potential individual complaints to UN human rights committees
- International Court of Justice referral for systematic human rights violations
“Australia’s international reputation is being destroyed by its treatment of our children. The world is watching, and we are failing every test of human decency,” Lamb said.
Reform with teeth: what must happen now
- Ban solitary-style separation for children, full stop.
Call it “separation,” “segregation,” or “isolation,” if a child is alone in a cell without meaningful human contact, learning, culture, or therapeutic support, it is harmful and incompatible with child rights. The Australian NPM’s recent joint statement on NT youth justice reforms should be implemented in full, including prohibiting spit hoods and ending prolonged isolation. - Raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 with no carve-outs, and build services far earlier.
Medical, legal and human rights leaders agree: 10 is too young. The ACT has now moved to 14; the NT is still at 12. The Commonwealth and all states and territories should lift the age to 14 and invest in disability-informed diversion, family support and on-Country services. - Make disability expertise non-negotiable in youth justice.
Every child entering detention should receive a neurodevelopmental and disability assessment within days, not months. Staff must be trained and supported to respond without force or deprivation. The Banksia Hill findings make this an urgent minimum standard. - Implement the Disability Royal Commission and NDIS Review in justice settings.
Deliver foundational supports and proper justice interfaces so children can access therapies, assistive tech, communication support, and family respite before police contact, and so kids in detention don’t lose supports at the gate. - Close the legal loopholes that invite harm.
The VC1 case shows how administrative approvals and vague operational justifications can stretch separation far beyond what’s safe. Tighten the Youth Justice Act and Regulations to abolish prolonged separation for kids, require real-time notification to independent monitors for any separation over two hours, and explicitly prohibit using food, water, medication or sleep as behaviour management. - Make OPCAT real.
Australia ratified OPCAT in 2017, but implementation has stalled. Governments must empower preventive monitors with unimpeded access to all youth justice sites, publish action plans, and fund fixes. After the UN’s rebuke, there are no excuses left.
This is bigger than one centre
Don Dale became a national symbol after the 2016 Four Corner’s story Australia’s Shame. A Royal Commission then recommended that it be shut down and the system be rebuilt around children’s rights and rehabilitation. Yet the VC1 findings show how quickly harmful cultures re-assert themselves when law, policy and training are misaligned with disability justice, and when oversight can be worked around.
The NT’s new facility in Holtze and Alice Springs upgrades don’t change the core truth: infrastructure cannot fix a punitive model. Only a disability-competent, culturally grounded, therapeutic system designed and led with First Nations people with disability can do that.
FPDN’s Immediate Demands: From Crisis to Justice
FPDN calls for immediate action across five critical areas:
- Emergency Response (Within 48 Hours)
• Immediately cease all separation practices exceeding 2 hours for any child
• End any use of food, water, medication, or sleep deprivation as “behaviour management”
• Provide immediate therapeutic support for VC1 and all children subjected to similar treatment
• Launch criminal investigation into staff conduct in the VC1 case - Legislative Reform (Within 30 Days)
• Repeal punitive clauses of the Bail and Youth Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
• Legislate permanent ban on spit hoods and prolonged isolation
• Mandate real-time notification to independent monitors for any separation over 2 hours
• Reinstate detention as measure of absolute last resort - Institutional Change (Within 6 Months)
• Close Don Dale Youth Detention Centre permanently
• Establish community-based, ACCO-led therapeutic alternatives
• Implement mandatory disability screening and support plans for all detained children
• Create independent oversight body with majority First Nations membership - National Standards (Within 12 Months)
• Federal government establish binding national minimum standards for youth detention
• Raise age of criminal responsibility to 14 nationally with no exceptions
• Implement comprehensive OPCAT compliance with independent monitoring
• Tie federal funding to human rights compliance and Closing the Gap targets - System Transformation (Ongoing)
• Redirect detention funding to community-based prevention and early intervention
• Fully implement Disability Royal Commission recommendations in justice settings
• Embed FPDN’s Cultural Model of Inclusion in all youth justice policies
• Establish national children’s commissioner with First Nations disability expertise
• Establishment of the First Nations Disability Forum as per DRC Rec. 9.10.
A Line in the Sand: No More Excuses
The VC1 case represents both a moral catastrophe and a decisive moment for Australian society.
“If a system finds itself withholding food from a disabled child, that system has already failed. The only credible response is to change the system, immediately. We will not accept another Royal Commission, another review, or another bureaucratic response. Our children’s lives are at stake,” Lamb said.
“This is bigger than Don Dale, it’s about whether Australia will continue criminalising disability and culture, or finally embrace justice, healing, and hope for our children. The choice is clear. The time for action is now,” Griffis concluded.
A respectful offer to work with government
FPDN stands ready to work with governments, media, and communities to develop evidence-based alternatives that respect human dignity while keeping communities safe. But the organisation makes clear: any delay risks another preventable tragedy.
FPDN stands ready to help design the reforms: on-Country disability supports, trauma-informed responses, cultural mentoring, family respite, and the workforce training to make restrictive practices obsolete. We will work with the NT Government, the Commonwealth, ACCOs and mainstream agencies in good faith.
But let’s be plain. The only credible response is to change the system, immediately.
Notes (key evidence & context)
- OCC investigation (tabled 4 Sept 2025): Found multiple failures in the care of “VC1” at Don Dale in April 2024, and issued five recommendations; NT accepted some but not all.
- 84-hour isolation & coercion: Reporting details that the child was kept in isolation for 84 hours and denied food/medication at times to compel compliance, well beyond legal limits and contrary to the Youth Justice Act.
- Law prohibits withholding essentials: NT Youth Justice Act s153 prohibits “excessive control” over access to basic human needs including food and clean drinking water, and the use of psychological pressure to intimidate or humiliate.
- Over-representation: In Sept 2022, 99.3% of children detained in NT facilities were Aboriginal. Closing the Gap Target 11 aims to reduce Aboriginal youth detention by 30% by 2031; many national targets remain off track.
- Disability prevalence: Banksia Hill study (WA) found 36% of detainees had FASD; 89% had severe neurodevelopmental impairment, underscoring the need for disability-informed, therapeutic responses.
- Reform obligations: DRC Final Report recommends phasing out solitary confinement and restrictive practices for people with disability and embedding disability-informed practice; Australia’s NPM has raised serious concerns about NT youth justice laws.
- Don Dale closure: Despite the 2017 Royal Commission recommending closure, Don Dale remains open; replacement facility timelines have slipped.
About First Peoples Disability Network
FPDN is the national peak organisation led by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability. We advocate for the human rights of First Nations people with disability and their families and work to ensure policies, programs and services are culturally safe, accessible and anchored in self-determination.
FPDN’s CEO Damian Griffis and Director of Policy and Strategy Tennille Lamb are available for further comment and interviews.
For all media enquires please contact:
FPDN Media Team
Email: [email protected] or Mobile: 0429 291 730
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