Final Report, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Tendered 8 May 2017, P
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VOLUME 1 VOLUME 2A VOLUME 2B 19. Case management and exit planning 3 20. Detention centre staff 31 21. Record keeping 59 22. Detention system oversight 85 23. Leadership and management 131 24. Leaving detention and throughcare 191 25. The path into detention 205 26. Other youth justice and detention and throughcare 355 27. Reshaping youth justice 407 28. A new model for youth justice 425 VOLUME 3A VOLUME 3B VOLUME 4 Page 1 | CHAPTER 19 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION AND BOARD OF INQUIRY INTO THE PROTECTION AND DETENTION OF CHILDREN IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY VOLUME 2B 19 CASE MANAGEMENT AND EXIT PLANNING CONTENTS Rehabilitation: Individual right and community expectation 6 Remand status and eligibility for case management 9 Adequacy of staffing and assessment tools 10 Adequacy of exit planning 13 Adequacy of stakeholder involvement 16 Management: security over rehabilitation 17 Warnings to management about case management deficiencies 19 Changes following the Vita report and the current case management and exit-planning framework 19 Case management in 2017 22 Page 5 | CHAPTER 19 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory CASE MANAGEMENT AND EXIT PLANNING REHABILITATION: INDIVIDUAL RIGHT AND COMMUNITY EXPECTATION Case management is a practical and effective way to coordinate services for rehabilitating children and young people. The goal is to help young people ‘promote and sustain their health and self-respect, to foster their sense of responsibility and encourage those attitudes and skills that will assist them in developing their potential as members of society’.1 This is achieved by providing access to activities and programs, including education and vocational training, based on each young person’s individual circumstances and needs.2 International and domestic human rights standards for youth detention and the Youth Justice Act (NT) include rehabilitation as a core purpose and objective. International human rights standards provide that: • the purpose of services to children and young people in youth detention is to help rehabilitate them so they can assume a socially constructive and productive role in society,3 and • children and young people in detention shall receive the care, protection and all necessary assistance, social, educational, vocational, psychological, medical and physical – they may require, based on their age and sex, and personality and individual traits.4 The Australasian Juvenile Justice Administrators’ (AJJA) Juvenile Justice Standards provide that ‘the principal purpose of a juvenile justice system is to intervene with children and young people to contribute to the reduction in re-offending’.5 The standards require: • the implementation of comprehensive assessment and case management systems Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory CHAPTER 19 | Page 6 • that interventions demonstrate a capacity to reduce reoffending • that children and young people are provided with opportunities and the support needed to behave responsibly • the delivery of services within the context of family and support networks to reduce reoffending • that children, young people, their families and support networks are able to participate actively in assessment, case planning and decision-making • that service delivery for children and young people who are Aboriginal is informed by cultural advice from family and community members • that key agencies, programs and services operate in partnership • that community organisations provide services and programs to children and young people, and • that facilities provide a physical environment that is safe and secure, and promotes rehabilitation.6 The AJJA Standards for Juvenile Custodial Facilities state that detention facilities should ‘provide a humane, safe and secure environment, which assists young offenders to address their behaviour and make positive choices about their lives, both during custody and upon their return to the community’.7 It is an object of the Youth Justice Act to ensure that children and young people who have committed an offence are given appropriate treatment and rehabilitation.8 The Act further provides that programs and services should encourage social skills and develop children and young people’s potential as members of society, and that they should be dealt with in a way that enables their reintegration into the community.9 Rehabilitation is also a legitimate expectation shared by victims of crime and the wider community. By targeting the causes of offending behaviour, rehabilitation is a means of reducing recidivism and in turn enhances community protection.10 The legislative framework does not refer expressly to detention exit planning or post-release support. However, such planning and support are recognised as indispensable components of an effective rehabilitation program for children and young people in detention, who are inevitably returned to the community.11 International human rights standards require pre-release planning while children and young people are detained and the provision of sufficient post-release services to facilitate their successful reintegration into the community.12 The Youth Justice Act makes superintendents of youth detention centres responsible for using case management to achieve rehabilitation.13 Under regulation 69 of the Youth Justice Regulations (NT), the Superintendent is required to maintain a comprehensive ‘case management system’ that assesses each detainee’s educational, vocational training and rehabilitation needs, and ensures a corresponding program of activities is available to each detainee. The benchmark for case management in youth detention was described in Department of Correctional Services policies as a ‘collaborative process of assessment, intervention, planning, linking, facilitation, review and advocacy to assist clients and families to improve their lives and provide opportunities that are likely to assist in reducing the risk of re-offending’.14 Page 7 | CHAPTER 19 Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory This goal was not achieved for the majority of children and young people in detention during the relevant period. In practice, few children and young people were provided with comprehensive case management attention and rehabilitation services, including exit planning. Through much, if not most, of the relevant period case management services were under-resourced and over-burdened. Families and responsible child protection workers were not adequately engaged in planning, and security and discipline within youth detention were prioritised over rehabilitation efforts. Youth detention senior management was on notice about some of the deficiencies in the case management system, but did not act until the events at the former Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in August 2014 exposed the failings of a youth detention framework lacking any serious focus on rehabilitation, as analysed in the Review of the Northern Territory Youth Detention System Report (Vita Report).15 After the Vita Report delivered recommendations in early 2015, improvements were made to the case management system. However, deficiencies within the model and inadequate resourcing undermined its effectiveness and some of those deficiencies still exist. This chapter describes the case management system in youth detention during the relevant period, including exit planning and identifies and examines deficiencies. Chapter 24 (Leaving detention and throughcare) considers rehabilitation and case management from a forward-looking perspective. It provides recommendations to improve the approach to rehabilitation not only for detention centres but more broadly for youth justice, based on research and evidence of practices in other jurisdictions. Evidence gathered on case management services In December 2016 the Commission issued a number of statement requests to the Northern Territory Government, including a request for statements dealing with case management services in youth detention during the relevant period.16 The statements and evidence received in response to those requests in early 2017 were primarily limited to the relevant policies in force throughout the relevant period,17 and practice since the implementation of recommendations arising from the Vita Report in 2015 to date.18 Some relevant evidence from across the relevant period, including the period 2013-2015, was received incidentally in the course of the Commission’s inquiries and public hearings during March- June 2017 from former detainees, youth justice officers, former Correctional Services operational and departmental managers, and two case workers who worked in the case management unit. Some of these witnesses were represented by the Solicitor for the Northern Territory. In June 2017, the Commission again asked the Northern Territory Government to address the statement request concerning case management, with specific attention drawn to the period between 2013-2015, given that evidence of an adverse nature about case management services had arisen during inquiries concerning that period.19 In response, in August 2017 the Northern Territory Government provided statements from two former senior case workers,20 however the scope of their evidence was limited to the period 2006-2013. In submissions,21 the Northern Territory Government relied heavily