Youth detention in the Northern Territory

In the Northern Territory, people aged under 17 years pending sentencing or after receiving a custodial sentence are held in youth detention centres. Youth detention is administered by the Department of Correction, with most incarcerated youths being held at either the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre or the Holtze Youth Detention Centre.

The Northern Territory, as of June 2015, had a juvenile detention rate of 16.7 per 100,000 people – the highest of Australia's states and territories. A report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in April 2016 showed that in 2014–15 of a national total of 900 juveniles in detention on an average day, 41 were in detention in the Northern Territory. However, in terms of incarceration rates, the Northern Territory overwhelmingly had the highest rate of juveniles in detention of any state or territory. It detained 15.6 in every 10,000 children of that age on an average day. Western Australia had the next-highest rate at 6.1 children detained, while Victoria had the lowest at 1.5.

The youth detention system was the subject of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, established by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on 28 July 2016. The royal commission followed the broadcast of the Four Corners episode "Australia's Shame", which exposed evidence of child abuse within the system. The final report for the royal commission was tabled to the federal parliament on 17 November 2017.