Justice System

Northern Territory Police will be able to hold children in watch houses for up to 48 hours and question them without an adult present under planned changes to the Youth Justice Act.

The inquiry heard calls for more scrutiny over how Commonwealth money is spent in the NT, which is trending backwards on seven Closing the Gap targets.

Deaths in custody are on the rise and family members and advocates for a woman who died in a Perth prison say more needs to be done to keep inmates safe.

Mick Fairfield arrived home after a normal day at work to find his wife dead with stab wounds and his young daughter hiding under a blanket. He waited years for the case to go to trial, but it never did and now he wants answers. 

South Australia's Youth Court cells do not meet "acceptable minimum standards of safety, dignity and care", resulting in child detainees increasingly appearing in court via video link, the state's youth detention watchdog says.

Australia's 2025 UN Youth Representative, Satara Uthayakumaran, collected thousands of letters from detention centres, town camps, classrooms, foster homes, and communities on Country.

As a nation, we have decided that a teenager cannot navigate a social media algorithm, but a 10-year-old can navigate a courtroom. For Australia's 2025 UN youth representative Satara Uthayakumaran, the contradiction is impossible to ignore.

Cameron Pearson, who pleaded guilty to killing Perth barrister Alice McShera by bashing her in the head with a champagne bottle, will spend at least 19 years in jail.

In 2020, a German backpacker strangled a Tasmanian sex worker, then fled with her mobile phone and cash. His version of events was accepted by an Australian court, which jailed him for manslaughter. Now, German authorities are re-examining the case.

Digital crimes involving harassment, or distributing child abuse material, are among the most common federal crimes being sentenced in Victoria, a new report shows. 

The ABC has been given a glimpse inside the custody cells at the Darwin Local Court that hold a revolving door of men and women arrested every week.

Katie Bird sought psychological help for intrusive memories related to alleged sexual abuse. Her court case was discontinued because she underwent eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.

A report based on data from prisons across the country has found the majority of strip searches in prisons do not find contraband. The authors of the study are calling for an end to what they say is a traumatising and degrading practice.

The Tasmanian government announces a "child first, offender second" approach for the operation of a new youth prison, which it says will offer small "home-like" accommodation for detainees.

A new report reveals NT residents felt less safe over the past year, despite a government crackdown on crime. 

Assaults in custody, longer remand times and a doubling of young people in detention are among the concerns flagged in the submission by the Aboriginal legal service.

There are hopes the Salvation Army-run facility will keep women safe and help them reintegrate into the community while easing pressure on the prison system.

Fijian chiefs reported suspicious activity along their stretch of coastline to law enforcement agencies — which then swooped on an alleged $780 million drug operation.

Despite the NT government signing on to establish 20 Aboriginal Law and Justice Groups by 2027, just five are up and running with less than 12 months to go.

A Sydney-based law firm says it is representing the family of a 44-year-old Aboriginal woman who died in custody at the Tennant Creek police watch house.