22-07-2025
NT police watch house concerns continue as 11-year-old girl held overnight 'with the lights on 24 hours'
Children as young as 11 years old are being held overnight inside Northern Territory police watch houses "with the lights on 24 hours a day", in what the NT's Aboriginal legal aid service has described as a "breach of human rights".
Anthony Beven, the acting chief executive of North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), said he had recently visited an 11-year-old girl inside the Palmerston police watch house.
"In some instances, we're seeing young people — as young as 11 — in [the] Palmerston watch house, being held … with the lights on 24 hours a day, in a cell by themselves, with adults in surrounding cells screaming, yelling," Mr Beven told ABC Radio Darwin on Tuesday morning.
In the NT, children who are taken into custody should be transferred to a youth detention centre as soon as possible under a court order.
Mr Beven's comments follow a warning from the NT's police union last week that a death or serious incident in custody was imminent under Palmerston watch house's overcrowded conditions.
For months, the NT's corrections department has been housing a growing number of prisoners in police watch houses due to a lack of beds inside correctional facilities, as prison population numbers have climbed to a record high.
There are currently about 100 people being held inside Palmerston watch house, including overflow corrections prisoners.
NT Police Association president Nathan Finn said the overflow of prisoners inside watch houses had left police officers fearful for their own personal safety.
"Our staff are struggling mentally, physically in looking after these prisoners," he told ABC Radio Darwin.
Mr Finn said up to 16 people were being squeezed into one cell at a time, posing a risk to police officers in charge.
"They're always worried about if something goes on in one of these cells," he said.
An NT Police Force spokesperson said the organisation had started using a new 12-hour roster from July 17 for police officers inside the Palmerston police watch house, "to achieve maximum staff coverage".
Mr Beven said in another recent incident, a woman who NAAJA claims was wrongly identified as a perpetrator of domestic violence spent five days at the Palmerston watch house.
"This is a woman, who has been beaten severely, threatened with rape and she … took reasonable action, in our view, to defend herself," he said.
Mr Beven said the woman was initially denied bail, despite having no criminal history as an adult, before later being bailed by a judge.
One former detainee, who wished to remain anonymous, last week told the ABC the women's cells were stained with period blood because detainees were not allowed to take a shower.
She also said a pregnant woman was denied medical care despite reporting stomach pains.
Mr Beven said the situation at the Palmerston watch house was "coming to breaking point".
NT Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley said he acknowledged the conditions inside police watch houses, and said the corrections department was racing to find more beds.
"Yes, we're seeing pressure in the watch houses, but equally," he told ABC Radio Darwin.
Commissioner Varley said the recently converted Berrimah adult prison in Darwin was originally expected to hold about 200 male prisoners, but was currently holding about 410.
"We are in the process of commissioning new facilities there, and new works," he said.
"We expect those to be online by [the] end of August, and that'll take capacity of that centre up by another 200 or so, to 640."
