Summer series podcast – Raising the Age: getting children out of prison

Julie Williams, Community Engagement Lead for JR Mt Druitt (pictured right), participated in The Australia Institute’s Summer Series podcast based on a webinar released in January 2022.

Everyone knows that children do best when they are supported, nurtured and loved. But across Australia, children as young as 10 can be arrested by police, charged with an offence, hauled before a court and locked away in a prison. This primarily affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Raise the Age is a campaign for the federal, state and territory governments to do what’s right and change the laws to raise the age, so children aged 10 to 13 years are not sent to prison. Part of Australia Institute TV. This episode was recorded live on 8 September 2021 and things may have changed since recording.

Here Julie shares her lived experience of her daughter’s experience in and out of the criminal justice system, and how services such as education were not prepared to cater to her needs; and how the justice reinvestment approach has helped young fellas in the Mt Druitt area are yarning together and coming up with their own solutions to increase more positive engagement, such as Oztag.

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director at the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett Guests: Julie Williams, Gamilaroi woman and Mt Druitt Community Engagement Officer, Just Reinvest NSW Meena Singh,Yorta Yorta woman and PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Sophie Trevitt, Executive Officer, Change the Record Dr Nick Fancourt, Paediatrician, Menzies School of Health Research.