NT: NT minister says Aborigines want to go to jail

AAP General News (Australia)
08-24-2001
NT: NT minister says Aborigines want to go to jail

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By Rod McGuirk

DARWIN, Aug 24 AAP - The Northern Territory's first Aboriginal minister, given the
job of overseeing jails, said today his people wanted to go to prison because they were
bored.

John Ah Kit, 51, will be sworn in on Monday as correctional services minister in the
Territory's first Labor ministry.

Mr Ah Kit said he wanted to curb the overrepresentation of Aborigines in Territory
jails by improving their job prospects through employment and training programs and increasing
resources in remote communities.

"Our people are going to jail because they want to go to jail," Mr Ah Kit told reporters today.

"They want to go to jail because it's boring out in their communities and its boring
out in their communities because there is nothing for them to do."

Mr Ah Kit's comments parallel those of fellow Top End Aboriginal leader Gatjil Djerrkura,
a former ATSIC chairman, who told a Senate committee that young Arnhem Land Aborigines
regarded jail as a rite of passage into manhood.

They also agree with mandatory sentencing advocates who argued after a 15-year-old
boy hanged himself in Darwin juvenile detection centre last year that Aboriginal youths
preferred to be in custody than at home.

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