The Koorie Youth Council (KYC) is deeply concerned about the safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people following the Victorian Labor Government’s announcement to trial electronic monitoring.
KYC calls for the government to drop surveillance tactics and instead invest in Aboriginal community-driven programs that have shown positive impacts within our communities and our children and young people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people deserve to live rich, happy, and fulfilling lives where their safety and well-being are cared for and respected. Implementing systems that over-police will likely drive our children to reoffend. Time and time again, we see that electronic monitoring does not work for any community or demographic, especially Aboriginal communities.
“To allow our children and young people to be subjected to ankle monitoring bracelets to alleviate the fear of community, places the onus on our children rather than services and systems that have continuously let down the needs of our children. This is not about community safety but further criminalising our children and subjecting them to treatment that is stigmatising and dehumanising. It is setting them up to fail and making it more likely that they will be trapped in the legal system for life.”
Bonnie Dukakis, Executive Officer of KYC
Read Ngaga-dji here: www.ngaga-djiproject.org.au
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