Under current South Australian law, children aged 10 to 14 are deemed incapable of understanding the full consequences of their actions, but that isn’t the end of the story.

In legal terms, that is a rebuttable presumption, meaning judges can convict children of criminal offences and sentence them to detention if their crimes are deemed serious.

This means that primary school-aged children can be – and are – imprisoned in South Australia’s juvenile detention centre.

A campaign to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 is gaining traction – but there’s been a recent backlash from Police questioning how that will work.

To explain what they believe needs to happen to keep kids out of detention, we’re joined in this week’s episode by Cheryl Axleby – co-chair of Change the Record – the national campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility, and Ross Womersley – CEO of SACOSS – who’s supporting the push.

Notes on Adelaide is a weekly current affairs podcast driven by the independent journalism of InDaily, CityMag and SALIFE, and produced by Solstice Podcasting.

New episodes are uploaded weekly. You can find the podcast on InDaily or on your favourite podcast app including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Listen to our previous episodes here.