Over-policing of children in care is 'manufacturing criminals', experts warn
Fear, resentment and hatred towards police are common feelings among those who have grown up in residential care, according to Daniel.
Daniel (not his real name) was 12 when he went into the care system and 17 when he ended up in a youth justice centre — environments experts and those with lived experience say are "manufacturing criminals".
Recent "alarming" statistics have shown children who have grown up in state care are overwhelmingly represented in the justice system, prompting experts to sound the alarm.
Youth justice advocates say these settings are providing a ripe training ground for the recruitment of vulnerable young people into a life of crime.
Children who have grown up in state care are overwhelmingly represented in the justice system. (ABC News: Paul Sellenger)
And it's something Daniel says he saw firsthand in the two weeks he spent in Adelaide's Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre, where he says he was housed with gang members, an alleged arsonist and an alleged rapist.
Daniel's journey
Daniel is a victim-survivor of domestic violence.
After his father broke his nose when he was about 11, his mother was granted full custody. But he says their home life was still turbulent.
His mother – a survivor of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, which saw her forcibly married — carried deep psychological scarring Daniel says she never sought help for.
A photo showing a Khmer Rouge forced marriage in the late 1970s. (Supplied: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum)
"I believe it was due to a cultural perspective … not seeking help whatsoever as it brings shame," he said.
As well as being emotionally distant, he said she displayed symptoms of untreated mental illness and could not cope with her son's frequent meltdowns and outbursts, which stemmed from the abuse he had suffered.
It meant by the time he was 12, he had lost count of the number of times his mother had called the police to get emergency mental health intervention for him.
Daniel is calling for change in how police are used to enforce compliance on trauma-related behavioural issues. (ABC News: Jessica Henderson)
Eventually, Daniel was forcibly removed from his mother's care and placed into residential care. He was 12.
'Fear, resentment and hatred towards police'
Unlike other forms of care, residential care, or "resi care", places children in groups of up to four in facilities with rotational staff.
During his years in residential care, Daniel says he repeatedly saw police called to deal with children, sometimes for trivial matters.
Daniel said this constant police presence created an atmosphere where "resi kids" felt unfairly treated by authority figures.
It meant, despite their different circumstances, all resi care kids had one thing in common: "Fear, resentment and hatred towards police," Daniel said.
Artwork created by children who have been sent to Adelaide's Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
"We all knew the outcome would be an escalated outcome [when police became involved]," he said.
He said children in residential care developed a fight or flight response to police because they were often called in to "enforce compliance".
Daniel said this was his experience when he was 12 and police were called when he threw a pillow in frustration during a counselling session.
He said the act of calling police escalated the situation.
"I was clearly distraught and whatnot, [and the police] decided to tackle me down onto the floor and shackle me in handcuffs,"
he said.
According to Daniel, those feelings towards police set him on a path to detention.
According to legal youth justice experts Madaline Anderson and Brittany Armstrong, repeated police call-outs in such scenarios make children resentful of the system and can push them into more serious offending.
Ms Anderson from Danni Stephens Legal, who has worked in youth justice for nearly 10 years, said roughly 85 per cent of children facing the Youth Court were from some form of state care.
Madaline Anderson says for many youth offenders the history of their offences coincides with them entering residential care. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)
It was not uncommon for behavioural flare ups to wind up before the court when police were called to respond.
"You can see this when you look at their offender history reports, the date of their offending coincides, in my experience, with them entering into residential care," she said.
"I've seen charges where an assault has been adjudicated and charged for throwing a glass of water.
"Every day, every day, children are being charged with that type of offending whilst they're in residential care."
Ms Armstrong, a barrister from Edmund Barton Chambers who has authored several papers on youth justice, said children throwing food at a carer could lead to an arrest when police were called out.
Brittany Armstrong says too often children who start out with negative police interactions become desensitised and "graduate" into adult criminals. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)
"There's all sorts of those examples … [in one instance] butter was flung across the room and it hit a carer and that resulted in an allegation of assault," she said.
Ms Anderson said there was a direct link to the frequency in which police were called, and the likelihood that someone would go on to offend as an adult.
"I use this term all the time — we are manufacturing criminals in residential care. That's what's happening,"
Ms Anderson said.
The appeal of somewhere to belong
Daniel was not charged when he was arrested when he was 12, but five years later police were again called out when he trashed his home in a fit of anger.
Charged with property damage and aggravated assault, the then-17-year-old was taken to Adelaide's Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre to await his court hearing.
The report looked at detainees held at the youth detention centre north of Adelaide. (ABC News)
After more than two weeks the charges were dropped, but not before he saw how kids could be lured into gangs while in detention.
"If they liked you enough for who you are — whether it be what you're in here for, how you handle yourself in Kurlana Tapa — then they would be interested in wanting to speak to you outside of the youth detention centre,"
he said.
The gangs could appeal to young people, "especially if they come from an unstable background", by giving them a rare opportunity to feel like they belong somewhere, Daniel said.
The problem with over-policing
It was in this way Ms Armstrong and Ms Anderson said children sent to youth justice centres could eventually graduate to adult prison.
"These children are not born bad, they're broken children who are trying to navigate a broken system," Ms Armstrong said, adding that they can become so de-sensitised to the criminal justice system "they don't really know any other way to live".
Ms Anderson said workers in residential placements needed to be better qualified to recognise behavioural issues and trauma among children in their care.
"We don't need to get the police involved every time," she said.
Speaking to the ABC late last year, South Australia's guardian for children and young people Shona Reid agreed that a less institutional response was needed for children who had come into care.
South Australia's guardian for children and young people Shona Reid. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
She said 28 per cent of children who went into youth detention last year came from out-of-home care.
"That is an alarming statistic. It's an alarming statistic that we all need to pay close attention to considering the care population is quite small in South Australia,"
she said.
Like Ms Anderson and Ms Armstrong, Ms Reid was concerned there was an over-reliance on police intervention in the Department for Child Protection.
For Ms Reid, understanding the trauma these children had already gone through was paramount to caring for them.
"That is my expectation for a system in the Department for Child Protection. I don't think it's too much to ask," she said.
"They were abused at home, physically, emotionally. They might have experienced sexual abuse at home. These are the type of children that we're talking about."
Ms Anderson said there was a direct link to the frequency in which police were called and the likelihood they go on to offend as an adult. (ABC News: Sophie Landau)
A government spokesperson said whether charges were laid against a young person was a matter for SA Police.
"The safety of children and young people, and the workers who support them, is of utmost importance," the spokesperson said.
"Police are only called to residential care homes when there are serious safety concerns for children or staff.
"DCP is currently working with stakeholders on reforms to support those involved with both the child protection and family support and youth justice systems with a dedicated comprehensive plan around 'dual involved' young people being acted upon."
A SAPOL spokesperson said police were governed by the Young Offenders Act with alternatives to court "at the centre of dealing with the actions of young offenders".
"The needs and rights of the victim must also be taken into account and will help to guide the action taken by police," they said.
"Diversion will always be part of the primary intervention for young people. However, there will always be a small cohort of recidivist perpetrators of serious crimes amongst the 10-13-year age group."