GRIFFITH’S Roger Penrith was shocked by what he what he saw on a Four Corners program last Monday night.
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Mr Penrith, Griffith City Council’s Aboriginal liaison officer, said it was fairly evident the system was failing the detainees.
“I felt so sorry for those poor boys,” said Mr Penrith.
“These are people that are supposed to be trusted and relied upon,” he said of the Don Dale workers.
Alarmed by high incarceration rates of Indigenous youth, Mr Penrith called for more diversionary programs, such as at Tirkandi Inaburra near Coleambally, where at-risk youngsters aged between 12 and 15 are shown ways to become resilient young men.
“They come back different boys,” Mr Penrith said.
The program included footage of a hooded teenager strapped to a chair and six boys being teargassed.
Aunty Isabel Reid, an Indigenous community leader in Wagga, has called for a widening of a proposed royal commission into the mistreatment of the young people.