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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Childhood in custody

A series exploring the stories of the Indigenous children trapped in Australia's jails, and how juvenile justice operates, as told by those who live and work in the system

3 January 2022

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  • A portrait of Isaih Sines and his 19-month-old son Teoke Kahuroa-Sines

    Revisited: How Isaiah survived Australia’s juvenile justice system

    Isaiah spent his teenage years in and out of youth detention. Now this young Dunghutti man is trying to change how our justice system treats Indigenous children

9 October 2021

  • Louie has spoken of his time in juvenile detention

    ‘Hell scared’: how a terrified homeless boy found himself locked up alone in the ‘hole’

    Louie has been in and out of juvenile detention most of his young adult life. He tells of how he’d pretend to be on the phone to family just to stay out of solitary a few minutes longer

22 January 2021

  • Daniel Daylight

    'Do we have that much to fear from a 12-year-old Aboriginal kid that we need to cage them?'

    The youth worker: The system is broken, Daniel Daylight says, arguing that if some of the money spent on detention were funnelled into Indigenous-run programs, outcomes would be very different

21 January 2021

  • Whalan, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A portrait of Isaih Sines and his nineteen month old son Teoke Kahuroa-Sines. SInes himself spent time in care and in juvenile detention and is now a Youth Ambassador for Just Reinvest NSW. The Koori court program, which operates out of the Children’s Court, was established at Parramatta in 2015 to reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in custody and to provide interventions to help set these young people back on the right path. October 21, 2020. David Maurice Smith/Oculi.

    How Isaiah survived Australia's juvenile justice system

  • Isaiah with one of his sons

    From 'supermax for kids' to family man and Indigenous role model

20 January 2021

  • As a teenager, Louie lost both his parents in the space of a year, ended up homeless, then became one of the nearly 1,000 kids that Australia keeps locked up

    2:18

    Indigenous Australia and a childhood in custody: Louie describes solitary confinement – video

  • Sophie Trevitt

    Australia 'choosing to invest' in hurting Indigenous kids, activist says – harming all of us

  • Munga Thirra, a Wangkangurru Aboriginal man whose son was assaulted by police in 2020 only days after the death of George Floyd in the US

    The Indigenous family fighting back against a legacy of police brutality

  • Thirra

    'Enough is enough': video of police slamming Indigenous boy face-first to ground rekindles father's rage

19 January 2021

  • Denis Reynolds

    'Treat children like children': Indigenous kids are crying out for help, judge says, not punishment

    The judge: As president of WA’s children’s court, Denis Reynolds was shocked by sentences given to youngsters facing ‘horrific’ circumstances

18 January 2021

  • Jim Taylor near the Western Australian Police Headquarters.

    The WA cops rounding up Indigenous kids: a 'toxic and racist environment'

    The police stories: Two former Western Australian and NSW officers speak out about what they saw during their time in uniform

17 January 2021

  • Indigenous Australia and a childhood in custody: Louie’s first night in juvenile detention – video

    As a teenager, Louie lost both his parents in the space of a year, ended up homeless, then became one of the nearly 1,000 kids that Australia keeps locked up

  • An Indigenous teenager who spent time in juvenile detention

    Australia's anguish: the Indigenous kids trapped behind bars

    In a new series, Childhood in custody, Guardian Australia investigates the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in juvenile justice and examines how the system operates – by telling the personal stories of those who live and work in it
  • Louie in Perth

    'Hell scared': how a terrified homeless boy found himself locked up alone in the 'hole'

    The child’s story: Louie has been in and out of juvenile detention most of his young adult life. He tells of how he’d pretend to be on the phone to family just to stay a few minutes longer out of solitary
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