The new Darwin facility includes three sleeping zones, education and training spaces, a home-style and commercial kitchen, and life skills and outdoor areas. Image: Bennett Architecture.
A new Darwin residential youth justice facility opened on 4 July.
The facility is one of four in the Territory, and is designed to host up to 16 young people who have been ordered by the Youth Court to attend a program there. The programs are being operated by First Step Development Enterprises.
The NT Government says residential youth justice facilities are designed to hold young people accountable for their actions and ensure they receive training to turn their lives around, stop reoffending, and find employment.
It says referrals to the Darwin and three other facilities will engage in education and training most suitable to the local job market, while also staying accountable to their bail conditions. If conditions are broken, the youth will go back before the courts.
Offenders can be sentenced to attend the facilities instead of being sent to youth detention. During a minimum sentence of between three and six months, specialist youth justice and education teams work with the young people and put them on a path to education and employment, and away from a life of offending.
The new Darwin facility includes three sleeping zones with individual rooms with ensuites, education and training spaces, a home-style and commercial kitchen to learn cooking, and life skills and outdoor areas.
Chief Minister Eva Lawler said no Territorian wanted to see children reoffending, and the youth justice facilities would hold them accountable and give them skills so they could work.
“Courts can now sentence young people to the Darwin facility. This is part of my government’s commonsense plan to reduce crime, which also includes a record $570 million boost to the police budget over five years,” she said.
Minister for Territory Families Ngaree Ah Kit said the facilities gave young Territorians who were part of the youth justice system a chance to break the cycle of crime.
“Not only do young people get held accountable for their actions, they also get given a safe place to stay while they attend school or a training program.”
