This comes soon after Mr Elliot told a parliamentary estimates committee hearing that there was “no practice or provision of isolation of young people in custody”.

Over six months ago I was approached by staff from Legal Aid and Juvenile Justice that confirmed that: according to the NSW Ombudsman, Juvenile Justice recorded 123 "segregations" of detainees lasting more than 24 hours in the past financial year and 87 "separations" for reasons such as gender, age and health.

They were let out of their cells for one hour a day in handcuffs and with no activities organised for them.

The food being fed to them was junk food like hamburgers, hot-dogs and sausage rolls.

I reached out to the media, but because the Juvenile Justice workers and Legal Aid solicitors were told they could not speak to me, the story was not told.

I then contacted a number of senior ex-Juvenile Justice staff and told them what was happening but they stated that “this type of behaviour could not be occurring as the policies and procedures of the Department of Juvenile Justice did not allow it”. After some inquires I was told that the managers of each centre ran their centres without scrutiny.

To try to find some answers, I hoped to meet with the Minister for Juvenile Justice. I quickly found out that no such position existed in the current government. After a few days of searching, I was told that the Minister for Corrections, David Elliot, was the Minister for Juvenile Justice.

A meeting was sought with the Minister and a date was set. I travelled three hours to attend the meeting and received a phone call 20 minutes before the meeting, letting me know that the Minister could not meet with me. Instead, I met with a totally disinterested staffer – the meeting finished in 15 minutes. 

For young people, every attempt needs to be made to return them to the community rehabilitated. This involves providing them with the appropriate assistance and treatment to ensure that they do not return to previous negative activities. Solitary confinement and other punitive approaches only increase the risk of reoffending as research, evidence and experience can attest. For this reason, the incarceration of any young person should only ever be used after all other avenues of rehabilitation have been exhausted. 

It’s time to put a stop to these dangerous and ineffective practices. Young people deserve to be provided with appropriate rehabilitation.

Yesterday afternoon I was just about to open my fifth stubby of beer when there came a knocking at my door. I opened up to see four little urchins yelling “Trick or treat.” I said, “Is it Christmas already?” and they shouted, “No, it’s Halloween.”

I said, “Well hang on a minute and I’ll see what I’ve got.” I looked in the cupboard but there was only a can of Watties spaghettis and it doesn’t have the pop top lid. I was going to ask the kids, “Have you got a can opener?” but I thought they probably haven’t.

So I looked in the fridge and there was some leftover stew but they wouldn’t like that. I know I didn’t.

Then I spotted the half block of no name cheese and I said the children, “Would you like some expensive cheese?” and they shouted, “Yes!” 

So I cut off four slices as thin as I could (Ebenezer Scrooge) and gave it to them. I said, “What’s it taste like?” and they said, “Beautiful” and off they went as happy as Larry and I went back to my fifth stubby of beer. Mission accomplished.