Indigenous Juveniles, Corrections

Juvenile Aborigines are horrendously overrepresented in Australia's justice system - with the estimated number of indigenous youth detentions at over ten times that of non-Aboriginal Australians. The Australian Bureau Of Statistics admits that no reliable systems for measuring the exact figures have yet been established.

According to the Australian Institute of Criminology in 2004, 306 Indigenous youth were detained that year. The Indigenous juvenile detention rate is 312 out of every 100,000, while the non-Indigenous rate is 12 out of every 100,000.

A study tracking the progress of individual young Aboriginal offenders through the criminal justice system from 1994 to 2002 found that 89% had continued to be detained regularly for offenses into adulthood, with 71% serving prison terms. Of those subjected to a "care and protection" order during childhood and adolescence, a whopping 91% went on to be arrested for crimes when they became adults, 67% of whom ended up in jail.

It has been calculated that in the next few years, the probability of juvenile Indigenous offenders progressing to the adult corrections system will be 100%.