Surge in NT youths in custody under CLP government, FOI data reveals

Confidential data obtained under FOI reveals increase in children, teens held in NT police watch houses In short: Northern Territory Police data released under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws shows the number of children and teenagers being placed into custody surged over a year-long period. The timeline coincides with the NT's Country Liberal Party government coming into power and introducing laws that directly impact young alleged offenders. Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe has criticised NT Police for what she says is a lack of accountability and transparency, for erroneously recording how long some youths are being held in custody. The Northern Territory Country Liberal Party (CLP) government's first year in power saw a surge in children and teenagers being taken into custody, an ABC investigation can reveal. Internal NT Police data released via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request shows there were 503 youths taken into custody at NT watch houses between March and September 2025. Of those, more than 90 per cent were Indigenous. The newly released figures show many of those taken into watch houses were repeat offenders, with a total of 934 youth custody incidents recorded. They also show an increase of more than 100 youths held in police station cells in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Palmerston, compared to the six months prior. The data from August 2024 to March 2025, also revealed via an FOI request, showed 870 youth custody incidents in NT police watch houses involving 402 youths. There is no public access to NT Police data on youths in watch houses except through lengthy and expensive FOI processes, so the two datasets cannot be compared to prior years to assess long-term trends. The youth statistics are in line with a similarly sharp spike in adult incarceration rates during the CLP's first year in government, after the party was elected on a mandate to clamp down on crime. In a statement, an NT Police spokesperson said since the CLP's election, police had "operated within a changing legislative environment, including reforms that have strengthened the tools available to police when responding to youth offending". The spokesperson said those included the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10, which came into effect in October 2024, and a hardening of youth bail laws. "These legislative changes may have contributed to the increase in youth custody episodes recorded during the second reporting period [March to September 2025] and are important context when comparing the two datasets," the spokesperson said. "Youth custody numbers are also influenced by a range of other factors, including offending patterns, repeat offending, bail compliance, court outcomes and police enforcement activity. "Any increase in the number of young people entering police custody creates additional demand on frontline policing, watch house operations and associated support services." Errors in data criticised by senator The data released to the ABC includes the duration each child or teenager is said to have spent inside a watch house, with some recorded as staying up to 60 days in the facilities. However, NT Police said the data showing how long youths were spending in watch houses could be erroneous, and "should not be relied upon". "These records are subject to manual data entry and, in some instances, may not accurately reflect the actual length of time a young person remained in a watch house," a spokesperson said. "The issue relates to historical records and manual data-entry practices. "Where an error or incomplete record is identified retrospectively, there may not be sufficient information available to reliably reconstruct the precise period a person spent in custody. "NT Police continue to identify data-quality issues where they arise and appropriately qualify information where its accuracy cannot be independently verified." The NT Police Association has previously called for the erroneous data system to be fixed, but it remains unclear whether that has happened, or if flawed data is still being recorded. Victorian Senator and Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman Lidia Thorpe said the lack of accurate time in custody data during the period in 2025 was "extremely worrying". "In the name of accountability and transparency, police need to be reporting accurately," she said. "I'm hearing on the street from the families that these kids are in the lock-up for far too long. "We're talking about 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds. "So, if the police aren't onto that, then that shows we've got a very serious problem with police accountability in the Northern Territory." The released FOI data does not show the ages of the 503 youths, so it is unclear how many of those taken into custody at watch houses were aged under 12. Alternative approaches to watch houses suggested Responding to the rise in the number of youths in custody, Senator Thorpe said she was "not surprised" considering the NT government's recent law changes. "I think the Northern Territory government is completely out of step here," she said. "They're not listening to the many solutions that communities have themselves on addressing this over-incarceration of particularly Aboriginal children in the NT. "One of those solutions has been, for a very, very long time, an alternative to watch houses … [like] a place where Aboriginal children, particularly, can go and have wraparound services." Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said in a statement there were other options that did not involve taking children into custody. "I have consistently said to ministers in the NT government they should invest in diversion programs, like the ones already running successfully in their own jurisdiction," she said. "The community-led justice reinvestment program on Groote Eylandt is delivering strong results, with a huge decline in offending and crime rates at an all-time low. "The NT government should be looking to replicate its successes across the Territory." An NT government spokesperson did not directly answer questions about what the CLP was doing to offset the rising youth in custody figures, if anything, or whether the party was looking into any other alternative approaches to taking youths into watch houses. "These reforms support the government's commitment to reducing crime, restoring community confidence and delivering greater security for Territorians," the spokesperson said.