ESSAY GUIDELINES
In assessment task 2, you are required to analyse a case study and produce an essay.
In your essay, you should explore and critically analyse the Sociological Imagination framework (from the Sociology field, covered in Module 3) and apply ONE ethical principle from your future profession to the case study through the lens of your chosen career field.
The case study is provided in Rise Module 3.1, and the essay question assigned to your field of study is available in the Subject Outline in the Assessment 2 folder on the vUWS site (and are provided later in this document).
In your response, you should use at least three (3) scholarly sources to support your application of these core foundations to the case study.
ESSAY QUESTION
Consider the following quote from the case study on Louie, ‘Indigenous children are jailed at 22 times the rate of non-Indigenous young people. And they are jailed younger. In 2019
nearly 65% of children under 14 in detention were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Study after study has shown that contact with the criminal justice system at a young age can do lasting damage to children, their families and communities.’
In your essay, explain how the problem of the over-representation of incarcerated Indigenous children can be explained, through the lens of the Sociological Imagination framework (from Core Foundation 2), and through ONE ethical principle relevant to your future profession (from Module 1.2) including limitations of each.
Examples from the case study and three (3) academic sources are to be included in your essay. Your essay should include the following:
• A clear essay structure, including an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. Definitions of the required frameworks: The Sociological Imagination and ONE ethical principle.
Explanations of how the problem of the over-representation of incarcerated Indigenous children might be explained from the Sociological Imagination framework and one chosen ethical principle.
Limitations of the Sociological Imagination and chosen ethical principle, with reference to the essay question. • 3 a minimum of academic sources.
• Intext citations and a reference list in Harvard WesternSydU style.
GUIDELINES
- You must compose a 1000-word essay.
- Utilise any academic sources within Module 1 and 3 folders. You can also find and use your own academic sources.
- Begin your essay with an introductory paragraph that provides a thesis statement that establishes your position and a clear indication of what your essay will cover.
- Write 3 body paragraphs: – Define the Sociological Imagination. Explain how the problem of the over-representation of incarcerated Indigenous children might be reflected from the Sociological
© Western Sydney University Enterprises Pty Limited 2025 1
GEDU1002 Core Foundations and Key Ideas, 2025
Imagination perspective. – Define and explain the chosen ethical principle linked to your future profession. Explain how the problem of the over-representation of incarcerated Indigenous children might be reflected/violated from the perspective of the chosen ethical principle. –
- Highlight limitations of the Sociological Imagination framework and the ONE ethical principle, with reference to the essay question.
- Write a well-structured conclusion that restates and reinforces your position
- Your essay must include in-text citations and a reference list and will be submitted to Turnitin on Friday, of Week 3, at 11:59 pm.
TOPIC:
Your essay requires you to analyse the possible reasons why Indigenous children are overrepresented in youth detention centres through the lens of the Sociological Imagination framework (body paragraph 1) on the one hand and ONE ethical principle from your chosen profession (body paragraph 2) on the other hand. In your third body paragraph, you must briefly discuss why the two are valuable for a specific professional role as well as highlight some of the limitations of the Social Imagination framework and the chosen ethical principle in understanding the factors that contribute toward over-representation in prison. Your essay does NOT need to include a cover page, start with the introduction. The word limit is 900 to 1100. The reference list does not count toward the word count, but the in-text citations do count toward the word count. You do not need to include sub-headings, but if you choose to, the sub-headings will also be included in the word count.
INTRODUCTION 150 TO 200 WORDS:
The introduction should briefly state the problem of overrepresentation, define the Sociological Imagination framework in your own words as well as include a brief job description of your profession of choice and then the ONE ethical principle chosen, followed by an outline of the content of the essay, all using WesternSydU Harvard referencing citations with matching scholarly or credible sources in your reference list as evidence for the claims (see the exemplar for ideas on how to structure the introduction).
GENERAL TIPS FOR BODY PARAGRAPHS:
All body paragraphs should start with a clear topic sentence to announce to the reader what the paragraph’s focus is. The final sentence of each body paragraph should be a summary of the main finding of the paragraph and/or tie it to the main topic of the essay.
FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH +- 200 words
The first body paragraph should analyse the possible reasons, based on scholarly sources as evidence, why Indigenous children are overrepresented in youth detention centres by discussing the Sociological Imagination Framework highlighting possible historical, cultural, and structural contributing factors with examples from the case study. You do not have to include “critical” factors as the fourth element (see the example body paragraph below provided in the exemplar).
SECOND BODY PARAGRAPH +- 200 words.
The second body paragraph should apply ONE ethical principle from your chosen future profession (see Rise Module 1.2 for a list of Codes of Ethics across disciplines), based on scholarly sources as evidence, that is in violation or could help address or advocate for Indigenous children who are overrepresented in youth detention centres. You must explain why this chosen ethical principle is violated and can address or advocate
GEDU1002 Core Foundations and Key Ideas, 2025
for Indigenous youth in detention centres using the case study (see the second body paragraph below in the exemplar).
THIRD BODY PARAGRAPH +- 200 words.
In your third body paragraph, you will briefly discuss why the two (ONE ethical principle and the Sociological Imagination framework) are valuable/helpful for a specific profession of your choice as listed in your introduction paragraph. You will do this by highlighting limitations of the Sociological Imagination framework in understanding the contributing factors for the overrepresentation in prison of Indigenous youth, you will also do this by highlighting any limitations of the ethical principle you have chosen to apply to the case study. As for all your body paragraphs, you need to cite and reference scholarly or credible sources to support your claims (see the third paragraph in the exemplar).
CONCLUSION – 150 – 200 WORDS:
Academic conclusions should restate/summarise the main point of each of the paragraphs and make recommendationsforfutureresearchorexploration. Youdonotneedtoincludein-textcitationsinyour conclusion (see the example conclusion below).
EXAMPLE ESSAY
Prejudice and discrimination refer to an attitude of pre-judgment and behaviours that harm people based on their group identity (Cooper & Michie n.d.). Prejudice and discrimination against Indigenous people in Australia have been long-standing issues, reflecting the broader challenges faced by Indigenous communities globally, leading to historical marginalisation, unequal treatment and systemic disadvantages (Henslin et al. 2014). The nature-nurture debate explores the interplay between genetic inheritance and environmental influences and can help us understand how people are shaped to discriminate (Hunt & Colander 2014). Concurrently, exploring race as a social construct can also shed light on the contributing factors because it is viewed as a product of societal categorisation rather than biological reality (Myers & Haslam 2016). Since a sociology researcher needs to explore solutions to social challenges (Henslin et al. 2014) this paper will examine the factors contributing to prejudice and discrimination against indigenous people in Australia through the lenses of the nature-nurture debate and the concept of race as a social construct. It will also discuss the value of these perspectives from a sociology researcher’s viewpoint.
The nature-nurture debate suggests that both genetic factors and environmental influences contribute to the development of attitudes and behaviours (Passer et al. 2018). Applying this lens to the prejudice and discrimination toward Indigenous peoples, one can argue that inherent biases may have evolutionary, biological roots that represent the nature side of the debate. According to Hunt and Colander (2014), humans may be born with a genetic inclination to form ingroups and outgroups, leading to an “us vs. them” mentality. One example from the case study can be seen in Louie’s claim that he was treated differently because of the colour of his skin, showing that white policemen might treat him differently because they do not see him as part of their “ingroup”. Exploring the nurture side, Passer et al. (2018) argued that environmental factors such as upbringing and socialisation play a pivotal role. Exposure to discriminatory beliefs and behaviours in one’s surroundings can reinforce prejudicial attitudes (Vaughan & Hogg 2008). An example can be seen in the fact
GEDU1002 Core Foundations and Key Ideas, 2025
that Indigenous children are stopped and searched more by police, reflecting that police officers could possibly influence each other to be more prejudiced. Exploring the case study through the lens of the nature- nurture debate is helpful because we can consider the possibility of a biological inclination to discriminate as well as group pressure by others who are prejudiced.
On the other hand, the social construct theory posits that race is a product of societal categorisation rather than biological distinctions (Germov & Williams 2017). In the context of Indigenous discrimination, this perspective highlights how societal power dynamics contribute to the marginalisation of Indigenous people. Historical factors like colonisation and dispossession have perpetuated stereotypes and reinforced systemic inequalities (Germov & Williams 2017). The social construct theory also underscores how institutions and policies can perpetuate discrimination through implicit biases (Passer et al. 2018). One example from the case study is the high prevalence of alcohol foetal syndrome amongst the children in detention which could point to historical problems faced by the mothers leading to overrepresentation in prisons as an example of a history of racial discrimination (Cooper & Mitchie n.d.) Considering race as a social construct is valuable because it highlights the impact of our social systems and beliefs leading to the disproportionate number of Indigenous children in prisons.
A sociology researcher should be aware of the limits of the models and theories they use to analyse problems (Henslin et al. 2014) so it is important to consider the limits of the nature-nurture debate and the social construct theory of race in understanding discrimination. Although the nature-nurture debate brings attention to the role of both innate tendencies and environmental influences in shaping attitudes, Myers and Haslam (2016) point out that there is a danger that the nature-nurture perspective can oversimplify the intricate interplay between biology and environment, overlooking the complexities of cultural and historical influences on prejudice. Goleman (2015) also argued that the focus on nature as a cause could also inadvertently perpetuate the idea that discrimination is innate and immutable. On the other hand, the social construct perspective illuminates how societal structures and historical injustices contribute to discrimination (Vaughan & Hogg 2008). Although one limitation is that it can create the idea that the individual is not accountable for their actions (Vaughan & Hogg 2008). However, it is more useful to a sociology researcher (Delgado & Stefancic 2020) since it requires a more comprehensive analysis of how systemic biases intersect with other influences and provides more information for the researcher to investigate in detail. Overall, exploring discrimination through the social construct theory appears to have fewer limitations.
In conclusion, prejudice and discrimination against Indigenous people in Australia have been a long-standing problem and demand multifaceted analysis. The role of a sociology researcher is to explore problems and solutions facing society. Exploring it through the nature-nurture debate and race as a social construct, we discern that both biological tendencies and societal influences like history contribute to these issues. A sociology researcher could use both concepts to further understand the problem of discrimination better, however, approaching it via the lens of race as a social construct provides more information about social
GEDU1002 Core Foundations and Key Ideas, 2025
factors which is the main focus of sociology researchers. Future research should focus on unravelling the interplay between innate biases, historical injustices, and systemic biases to create a holistic understanding of prejudice and discrimination. This understanding will be crucial for developing effective strategies to counteract discrimination, empower indigenous communities, and foster inclusivity and equality in Australian society.
GEDU1002 Core Foundations and Key Ideas, 2025
References
Cooper, L & Michie, J n.d., ‘Perspectives on social sciences: What are the social sciences and why do they matter?’, Academy of Social Sciences, Available from: https://acss.org.uk/perspectives-on-social-sciences-1-what-are-the-social-sciences-and-why-do- they-matter (accessed 20 May 2023).
Delgado, R, & Stefancic, J 2020, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, NYU Press, New York. Germov, J. & Williams, L. 2017, A Sociology of food & nutrition: the social appetite, 4th edn,
Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria.
Goleman, D 2015, ‘How to be emotionally intelligent” Education Life supplement’, The New York Times, April 7, 2015, viewed 07 June 2023 <https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/education/edlife/how-to-be-emotionally- intelligent.html?_r=0>.
Henslin, J, Possamai, A, Possamai-Inesedy, A, Marjoribanks, T & Elder, C 2014, Sociology: a down-to-earth approach. 2nd edn, Pearson, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales, p. 8.
Hunt, EF & Colander, DC 2014, ‘Social science and its methods’, in Social science: an introduction to the study of society, 15th edn, Pearson, Boston, MA, pp. 1-5.
Myers, DG & Haslam, N 2016, ‘Behaviour and attitudes’, in T Griffin (ed.), 101557: The individual in society, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill Australia, North Ryde, Australia, pp. 116-145.
Passer, MW, Smith, RE, Allen, F, Bishop, B, Boag, S, Butcher, P et al. 2018, Psychology: the science of mind and behaviour, McGraw-Hill Australia, North Ryde, Australia
Vaughan, G. M. & Hogg, M. A 2008, Introduction to social psychology, 5th edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia.
THIS IS THE CASE STUDY- AUSTRALIA’S ANGUISH: THE INDIGENOUS KIDS TRAPPED BEHIND BARS
Source: The Guardian 2021, ‘Australia’s anguish: The indigenous kids trapped behind bars’, The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, viewed 21 April 2023,
On an average night in 2019, there were 949 children behind bars in Australia – more
than half of them were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Of all 10-year-olds incarcerated, 80% were Aboriginal children.
Aboriginal kids make up only 6% of all 10- to 17-year-olds in Australia but they are 54%
of the juvenile detention population.
They are jailed at 22 times the rate of non-Indigenous young people. And they are
jailed younger. In 2019 nearly 65% of children under 14 in detention were Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander.
Study after study has shown that contact with the criminal justice system at a young
age can do lasting damage to children, their families and communities.
The younger a child is the first time they’re sentenced, the more likely they are to
reoffend violently, to continue offending and to end up in an adult prison before their
22nd birthday. According to a 2016 report by the Sentencing Advisory Council, 94% of
children in detention aged 10 to 12 returned to prison before they were 18. The collective anguish about Aboriginal children trapped in the juvenile justice system
is expressed in the Uluru statement from the heart:
Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an
innately criminal people. Our children are alienated from their families at unprecedented
rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in
detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
2
Guardian Australia today launches Childhood in custody, a series about how juvenile
justice operates in Australia, as told by those who live and work in the system.
A Noongar boy, homeless since the age of 14, talks about the terror of his first night in
jail, but how it was better than sleeping on the streets. A stolen generations parent
who has experienced police violence watches his son face similar treatment. Police in
two states talk about wanting to move beyond a culture of targeting Aboriginal kids. A
youth worker tries to stem the tide of children going from foster care to jail, with little
funding, while a magistrate expresses frustration at the limmited options he has to help
kids out of the system. They all talk about what they have seen and what they would
like to see change.
A psychologist and Nyamal woman, Dr Tracy Westerman, says prison doesn’t teach 10-
year-old children anything but can make existing problems worse.
“Kids don’t have the internal ability to weigh out moral reasoning at that age,” she
says. “You lack the ability to regulate thoughts, behaviours and emotions. Quite often,
you can be highly impulsive, you can have impulse control issues.
“Imagine putting that kind of person in an environment with hundreds of other kids that are the same. Many Aboriginal children in detention have at least one neurological impairment.
In Westerman’s home state of Western Australia, a 2018 study found that almost every
child in detention was “severely impaired” in at least one brain function, be it memory,
language, attention or executive function – which limited their ability to plan and
understand consequences.
The study of 99 children in Banskia Hill detention centre found nine out of 10 kids had
some cognitive impairment, and one in three had foetal alcohol spectrum disorder –
the highest known rate in the world of FASD among any population in the justice
system. Seventy-four per cent of the children in the study were Aboriginal.
3
“Impairments may come across in behaviours with young people appearing wilfully
naughty, defiant, or lazy, when in reality they may been be struggling to remember,
understand or comprehend what is required of them,” the researchers wrote.
In his 14 years as president of the children’s court of Western Australia, Denis Reynolds
says he regularly saw Aboriginal children aged 10 to 13 who were so small “they could
hardly see over the dock” and who had “serious neuro-developmental impairment”.
“We’re saying they’re bad kids,” says the judge, who is now retired. “What we should
be saying is these kids are crying out for support and we need to be providing it.” OUT-OF-HOME CARE AND PUNITIVE POLICING
Studies show a strong link between the time children spend in out-of-home care and
juvenile detention.
From 2014 to 2019 more than half of the young people who had been in the justice
system had also received child protection services. Aboriginal and Islander children are
overrepresented in the out-of-home care system in every jurisdiction in Australia.
Aboriginal children are also disproportionately targeted by punitive policing. In New
South Wales, for example, Indigenous kids are significantly overrepresented in the
number of strip-searches conducted by police.
NSW police have also been operating a secretive blacklist known as the suspect target
management plan, or STMP, largely made up of Indigenous children – 72% – deemed to
be at risk of committing crimes.
The NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission found that many of the children,
some as young as nine, had not been charged with a crime and were not aware they
were a target.
Between 2017 and 2019 the state’s highest concentration of kids subject to the STMP
were in the western Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt.
At 13 Isaiah Sines was strip-searched by police on his way to the shops in the suburb.
Isaiah says he was told to strip down to his underpants on the side of a busy road. “It was embarrassing,” he says. “I didn’t know what to do so I just complied.”
Isaiah doesn’t know if he was on the STMP but says there were periods when police
stopped him almost daily. One day he was stopped twice, by the same officers. The
first time he was strip-searched. The second time he was questioned.
THE AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
Increasing the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 could lead to a
decrease of about 15% in the number of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people in detention, according to the 2020 Productivity Commission report,
Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage.
But governments – with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory’s – are
reluctant to act, citing community safety concerns.
In November 2018 the Council of Attorneys-General agreed to consider raising the age.
But when the council met again last July it decided that further work was needed “on
adequate processes and services for children who exhibit offending behaviour”.
“There is a significant risk that a simple increase to the minimum age of criminal
responsibility would leave this cohort of children without proper support services,” said
South Australia’s attorney general, Vickie Chapman.
Her NSW counterpart, Mark Speakman, said any reforms “would need to be in the best
interests of the NSW community, with the safety of the community a key
consideration”. It’s a view shared by many states. But Queensland’s attorney general,
Sharon Fentiman, said bluntly: “There are no plans to raise the age of criminal
responsibility in Queensland.”
The Northern Territory government said it was considering how to raise the age from
10 to 12 years, as recommended by the royal commission into the protection and
detention of children in the NT.
All but one of the 32 kids now in juvenile detention in the NT are Aboriginal boys.
There have been numerous times over the past decade when every single child in
detention in the territory is Aboriginal. The NT is building a $55m replacement for the
much-maligned Don Dale youth detention centre, which is due to open in 2022, and
spending $13m on the Alice Springs youth detention centre. In August the ACT became the first and only jurisdiction to commit to raising the age
to 14, by promising to amend legislation in the next parliamentary term.
“Locking up kids fails the children themselves and it also fails to protect our
community,” said the ACT’s attorney general, Shane Rattenbury. “If we want to reduce
future offending, expanded support and diversion is the way.”
5
SO WHAT ELSE WORKS?
Circle sentencing works, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and
Research.
The restorative justice program is available in 12 NSW local courts. The magistrate
works with Aboriginal elders, victims and the offender’s family to determine an
appropriate sentence.
In April, Bocsar found that Aboriginal people who take part have lower rates of
imprisonment and recidivism than those who are sentenced in the usual way. Youth worker Daniel Daylight: ‘I want to stop people from ever going to court.’ Photograph: David
Maurice Smith/Oculi.
Some states also have their version of the NSW youth Koori court, which was
established in 2015. Elders, lawyers and police meet to discuss the issues that may lie
behind a young person’s offending. They develop plans for each offender. Participants
have up to 12 months to complete the program and their performance is taken into
account during the sentencing process.
Both these options are for sentencing. But the youth worker Daniel Daylight says
waiting for kids to come to court and plead guilty is starting way too late.
“I want to stop people from ever going to court. I want to stop us focusing on having
culturally safe courts, when really, we need to have culturally safe communities and
cities.”
Tracy Westerman says therapeutic approaches are needed, to diagnose and manage
children’s developmental issues, to divert them away from the justice system.
Ultimately, jailing 10-year-olds puts Australia behind international human rights
standards.
“When do we lose our compassion for a child who is being abused or traumatised in
their home?” she asks. “Well, effectively Australia says we lose that compassion at 10.”
• The Childhood in custody series is supported by the Barlow foundation. Read
more about how the Guardian funds some content here. ‘HELL SCARED’: HOW A TERRIFIED HOMELESS BOY FOUND HIMSELF LOCKED UP
ALONE IN THE ‘HOLE’
Source: Murphy-Oates, L 2021, ‘’Hell scared’: How a terrified homeless boy found himself locked
up alone in the ‘hole’’, The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, viewed 21 April 2023,
<https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/18/hell-scared-how-a-terrifiedhomeless-boy-found-himself-locked-up-alone-in-the-hole >.
THE CHILD’S STORY: LOUIE
Louie has been in and out of juvenile detention most of his young adult life. He tells of
how he’d pretend to be on the phone to family just to stay a few minutes longer out of
solitary
Shortly after Louie turned 15, he was standing in front of a shop window late at night
with his friend Joe, who was holding a stolen hammer.
For weeks they had been sleeping on the streets of Perth. At night they would fall
asleep sitting in front of hot air vents to keep warm, using a rolled-up jumper for a
pillow, lying against each other, Louie’s head on Joe’s shoulder.
“We was doing it hard,” Louie says. Louie is not his real name; Guardian Australia has
changed it to protect his privacy.
They argued about who would break the window but then – crack! – they were in.
Louie grabbed as much food as he could carry – confectionery, chips, chocolate, pies –
and rolled it into his shirt. He ducked into an alleyway and sat down, trying to eat as
much as he could before the police arrived.
“I just put my hands up,” Louie says.
Louie became one of the 949 children behind bars on any given night in Australia.
More than half of the children in custody are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, even
though they make up only 6% of all 10- to 17-year-olds in Australia.
Aboriginal and Islander children are jailed at 22 times the rate of non-Indigenous young
people and they are jailed younger.
When he got to the Western Australia’s youth detention centre, Banksia Hill, on the
outskirts of Perth, Louie told youth workers he was glad to be locked up so he could get a change of clothes. As a young Indigenous man, Louie has been in and out of Banksia Hill detention centre
for most of his young adult life. Louie is one of eight siblings who ended up in different homes across three states. Photograph: David
Dare Parker/The Guardian
When he was 14, living in care, his father died suddenly. He spent the following year
between youth detention and homelessness until his mother was released from jail. He
went to stay with her. But less than a year later she too died unexpectedly, and Louie
was back on the street.
His younger brother, who is 14, has also been in and out of Banksia Hill.
At 19, Louie is now his carer, juggling the trauma of his own childhood in detention and
the responsibilities of adulthood.
“We’re jailing kids who are homeless … who are fighting to survive,” says Gerry
Georgatos, coordinator of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery
Project. The organisation supports people living in poverty and struggling with mental
health.
Last year Louie, his partner and his brother walked into Georgatos’s office looking for
help. They had been sleeping rough in a park. Their story shocked him.
“Child protection failed them, the Department of Corrective Services failed them,”
Georgatos says. “We need some systemic repair.”
Louie is one of eight siblings who ended up in different homes across three states.
He was first taken into care when he was eight. He doesn’t know why. One day he was
pulled out of school, went on a holiday to a farm and, when he came back, his parents
weren’t there anymore. He was told he would be living with another family member.
Then he moved interstate, away from many of his siblings.
He felt the absence of his parents more as he grew older. Mother’s Day at school was
particularly hard.
“I was just out of place my whole life,” he says. “I started questioning: why don’t I have
a life like everyone else? I just hated it! I hated everything”. As a teenager he started hanging out on the streets and fell in with a crowd of kids
who would go out at night, drink, throw rocks at houses, and sometimes break in.
Eventually he got caught.
He says his lawyer told him he could be facing up to a year in detention on remand
before his case came back to court, and advised him to plead guilty.
“They told me straight out, you’re going to Banksia Hill.”
On the way there he felt nervous. He had only seen the inside of prison on TV. On
arrival, he was placed in a holding cell with two other boys – one 12, the other 11. Louie
sat down next to the youngest boy.
9
“The size of his legs was like the size of my wrist,” Louie says. “He was a small skinny
boy. Just a really little squeaky voice … no facial hair, nothing.”
Louie was taken to a cell and locked in for the night. He had a toilet, a shower, a bed
and a TV covered with a protective plastic screen so heavily scratched he couldn’t see
anything.
“I was like hell scared,” he says. “I was in the corner rocking back and forth. My throat
was hurting, it was hard to swallow. My chest felt like it was caved in … I cried for like
the whole night.”
After a few days he was given bail, on condition that he went to school and attended
every class.
It’s called the ‘back’ or the ‘hole’. It’s like sittingg in the back of a police van. I could
touch both sides
Only a few weeks later, Louie got the news that his father had died. Struggling with
grief, Louie got into trouble at school and breached his bail condition.
He was sent back to Banksia on a two-month sentence.
“I cried the whole way, I was angry the whole time,” he says. “I had no control over my
own life, that’s what it felt like.”
Louie met six cousins in the centre. In his unit of 30 boys, he says there was only one
non-Indigenous kid. On average, three-quarters of the 100 to 150 kids in Banksia Hill
are Aboriginal.
“There’s really a problem of systemic racism in the justice system that we’re not
tackling,” says Hannah McGlade, a human rights lawyer and Noongar woman who is a
member of the UN permanent forum for Indigenous peoples.
“We really are traumatising young people and we’re setting them up for a life of
institutionalisation, which is a shocking abdication of our duty to Aboriginal youth.”
The worst part about life in Banksia was Louie’s time in solitary confinement. After
getting in trouble for fighting, he says he was placed in a small, windowless cell the
size of a parking space for about 14 days. This area is called the intensive support unit
or ISU, but the boys had a different name for it.
“It’s called the ‘back’ or the ‘hole’,” Louie says. “It’s like sitting in the back of a police
van. I could touch both sides.”
On any given day there’s an average of 13 young people in the ISU. Louie says he was
kept inside for up to 23 hours a day, with no TV, no school, no human interaction
whatsoever.
“You know how, you put a dog in a cage and stop it from going to the outside world
and it triggers something in their brain that makes them really violent? And they get
hell vicious? Pretty much exactly the same”. Louie says he was only allowed out for two phone calls a day, with 10 minutes
afterwards to exercise by himself in a caged outdoor area with a basketball. When he
called his family, they rarely answered.
“When you get a call from Banksia it will say, ‘You have received the call from the
detainee in Banksia detention centre, if you would like to receive this call stay on the
line, if not please hang up,’” he says. “Every time I rang up, they just hung up on me.”
But Louie would pretend to be on the phone, talking to his family, just to stay out of
the hole.
“That treatment would constitute torture under human rights law,” McGlade says. “It is
absolutely shocking, and it is prohibited, and is being used frequently in this state.”
According the UN, any period of solitary confinement for juveniles constitutes torture
or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and should be prohibited.
In 2018 the West Australian inspector of custodial services described the ISU as “a
highly inappropriate and counter-therapeutic environment to house young people who
are, or had been, acutely mentally unwell”. An investigation by the inspector found that
two teenagers had been held in solitary confinement for 10 days in 2017. He
recommended a review of the Young Offenders Act 1995 to ensure children were given
a minimum of two hours outside the cell each day in accordance with international law.
The WA Department of Justice told Guardian Australia that this review has not yet
been carried out. In response to questions about the conditions in the unit, the
department said: “Young people held in the ISU on average spend 10 hours out of their
cell and have access to all services provided at Banksia Hill. ADD IN IN FORMATION FROM THIS VIDEO- Indigenous Australia and a childhood in custody: Louie’s first night in juvenile detention. Louie says he was kept in the hole for about 14 days but it’s hard to remember. His
younger brother claims that he’s been kept in the hole for “months”. Louie’s friend Joe,
whose name the Guardian has changed for privacy reason, is now serving a sentence in
Banksia. He told Louie that he’s been in and out of the hole for the past six months. He
calls often, in distress.
“He rang me, upset, saying, ‘I want to kill myself; this is getting to me, I can’t sit in this
place no more,’” Louie says.
The department said it “cannot comment on specific allegations about individuals in
care” and that Banksia Hill had introduced a new “trauma-informed model of care”
with the intention of “reducing recidivism rates”.
Looking back at his treatment in the justice system, Louie believes “harder
consequences” didn’t work. He just needed a safe place to go. He also wishes someone
had listened to him. Nobody asked about his parents or how he felt about losing them.
“They never ever actually said, ‘How do you feel about everything?’ Or, ‘What’s going
through your head?’ They never ever did that once.
“I just wanted to say what I was thinking. Well, I never got the chance.”
Louie’s connections to the world are fragile. He has trouble reading and writing, he
doesn’t have any form of identification and he’s fighting to keep his little brother out of
detention. Louie hasn’t been detained for the past two years but he’s worried that
some unpaid fines might land him back inside – this time in an adult prison.
With the assistance of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project
and the First Nations Homelessness project, he has found housing.
“I want a job,” he says. “I want to drive a big car and I want a big house. They said I
was gonna be nothing.”
After being out of place his whole life, he wants to belong. ETHICAL GUIDELINE SOURCES FOR SOME OF THE PROFESSIONS/ CAREERS
POSSIBLY INVOLVED IN THE CASE STUDY
The following is a list of professionals and potential career paths based on the preceding case study.
Each career path is accompanied by a link to the ethical guidelines most relevant to that profession.
These guidelines will not only assist you in completing your assessments for this subject but also serve
as a valuable resource to guide you in your future studies and chosen careers.
However, please note that you are not restricted to this list. You have the freedom to focus on any
profession that might be involved in the case study and consult any of the ethical guideline sources
provided by the relevant professions. For instance, if you have an interest in politics and believe that
politicians can play a significant role in advocating for change, you could explore the ethical guidelines
for Australian politicians as part of your research and analysis.
Remember, the purpose of this subject is to encourage exploration and critical thinking within your
chosen field of study. By considering various professions and their ethical guidelines, you will gain a
broader perspective and develop a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics involved.
GENERAL ETHICAL GUIDELINES WORKING WITH CHILDREN:
https://www.acyp.nsw.gov.au/participation-resources/ethicalconsiderations#:~:text=Ethical%20considerations%20are%20essentially%20about,in%20your%20organis
ation’s%20decision%20making.
CAREER SPECIFIC:
Judges https://www.judcom.nsw.gov.au/publications/code-of-conduct/
Magistrates https://www.judcom.nsw.gov.au/publications/code-of-conduct/
Psychologists https://psychology.org.au/getmedia/d873e0db-7490-46de-bb57-c31bb1553025/18apscode-of-ethics.pdf
Youth workers https://www.youthworknsw.org.au/code-of-ethics
Police officers https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/508315/
COCE_113782_01_Dec_14.pdf
Neurologists https://www.medicalboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-policies/code-of-conduct.aspx
Journalists https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/
Foster care workers https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/320958/authorisedcarer-code-of-conduct.pdf
Researchers https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-02/aiatsis-code-ethics-jan22.pdf
Criminologist https://anzsoc.org/about/ethics/
Community Justice workers https://www.acwa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ACWA-Ethicsand-good-practice-guide-Jan-2023.pdf
Law https://www.lawsociety.com.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/LS3611_PSD_StatementOfEthics_2021-
06-25.pdf
Social Work https://aasw-prod.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/wpcontent/uploads/2023/03/AASW-Code-of-Ethics-2020.pdf
Child Protection Services https://accsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Code-of-Ethics.pdf
Advocacy https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-02/aiatsis-code-ethics-jan22.pdf
Correctional officers https://correctiveservices.dcj.nsw.gov.au/documents/programs/hr002-dj-code-ofethics-and-conduct.pdf
Mental health professionals https://mhaustralia.org/mhca-code-conduct