Children in state care who are arrested after committing crimes are being subjected to strip searches and placed in cells within direct view of adult offenders at the Adelaide City Watch House, South Australia’s Guardian for Children claims.
Potential “life-saving” laws that give the Youth Court the power to detain drug-dependent children for treatment will be enforced later this year, but under a different model to what the Marshall Government promised ahead of the last state election.
South Australia’s inaugural Child and Young Person’s Visitor, who was legislated to conduct inspections and advocate for the welfare of children living in residential care following a Royal Commission, has resigned saying a lack of government funding means she can’t do the job.
Children in state care who end up in the youth justice system are sometimes kept in detention days after they are granted release because child protection authorities have no homes for them to go to, according to South Australia’s Guardian for Children.