English Fundalmentals - Feature Article Term 2 Hsc

By Charlie Dang

In 1834, the first experimental juvenile Prison for male convicts in Australia was built on the small peninsula of Point Puer, Carnarvon Bay. Here stood Gloomy stone buildings if not wooden dormitories. Boys would have to face the continuous, chilly blowing winds. Being on the peninsula the prison was surrounded by grey waters. The prison only lasted until 1849. In those short 15 years, it housed 3000 delinquents and built a reputation for its tough discipline, and harsh punishment. Now, there are daily hour tours to see the remains of the prison that is located near Port Arthur, Tasmania. It’s hard to see that institutes have somewhat evolved in the past 150 years. Most institutions have been founded for the comfort of high-order people. Institutes have kept society out of chaos, but at a high price. The victims of many institutes seem have fallen into a tangled loop that is uncontrollably hard to unknot. What’s worst is that many institutes [especially the health sectors in New South Wales] are underfunded. “A psychiatric patient was admitted to Nepean Hospital's emergency department on April 27 and had to be restrained and sedated for 36 hours” said Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell. We are aware of the underfunding and our government still turtles on, on finding a solution. These events are not unique. A week later on May 4th another patient had to be sedated and HANDCUFFED at the western Sydney emergency department for 30 hours. These conditions seem almost as harsh as the fictional film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) directed by Miloš Forman. The film was based on mental institutes in 1963, where the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and lobotomy was seen as acceptable use of treatment for patients. I ask myself what would happen to young depressive patients in mental institutions in our modern age. Would they be treated with the care society would expect they would receive or would they be the victims of these underfunded facilities? Coming back to Juvenile detentions centres, we have come a long way from the view of Robert Hughes, the author of The fatal shores. “An unexplored continent would become a jail. The space around it, the very air and sea, the whole transparent labyrinth of the South Pacific, would become a wall 14,000 miles thick”. In this excerpt he describes historical Australia and it’s terrain as one massive prison with the sea surrounding it as its walls. Unlike today’s institutes for young delinquents there is more knowledge on what is successful in turning around these young people into model citizen. For example Mungindi juvenile detentions centre, also known as “the farm”. “The farm” has no gates, no barbwires, and no guards. This is in direct contrast to Point Puer Juvenile detention centre where the

surrounding waters gave the youths no freedom. The warden at “the farm” Sam Fraser says that if the boys are unwilling to stay, he does not force them to. He believes that all delinquent boys are able to change but only if they want to. “Only you can change your life” said Sam. When I travelled out to Sam’s juvenile detention centre it was totally not what I expected, the boys had so much freedom, they were granted excursions into town and was accepted by many of the town folks. Some of the youths here did not even seem like they were troubled in anyway. One boy I met name Josh Collins [from an indigenous background] has been here for three years, he first came as a delinquent youth, but has turned his life around. He is now helping Sam as a stable hand whilst studying at the same time trying to get into university. “Sam has helped me in so many ways in life that I cannot begin, I have been through the hardest yards and because I can do it, anyone can” said Josh. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics there were 616 on average in 2002-03 of delinquent youths in detention centres in Australia. Of those 616, 220 were in New South Wales alone. This has been an improvement since 1998-99 where there was 716 youths in which 285 of them where in New South Wales. In the end I question myself. Does everyone benefit from these institutes? But then again not all institutes are like “the farm” or the mental institutes in the 1960s or the hospitals we find in New South Wales. There will always be the disadvantages or advantages because institutes do not answer the questions of society but rather just control the chaotic part of it so it can run peacefully. The victims of these institutes are being hard done by. It’s the public’s responsibility to make the government aware that more funding is needed to give them a chance.