Detention centers and children

I've never met someone from a detention center such as the one in Darwin where Aboriginal children are locked up for petty crimes and abused. Yet I've all heard about the bad things that happen there. People ending up in there for petty reasons, minor offenses, usually their race plays a significant part, and in some cases nothing much at all lands them inside. Then they're treated badly by those in charge of caring for them!

Who are the people working there? How did they get the job? Did they pass some type of humanity test? This can't be the best we get or all we have to offer these children? Where are the good role models running these facilities? Instead they seem to have come from terrible places, come to dump their low self esteem on those stuck in these terrible places. 

They probably think it's big person stuff to oppose another's wishes and well being. They're really just adult bullies. People who bully just for the sake of being able to kid themselves, see I'm big!

Bullies are ugly, yet bullies are raised... by bullies. They learn how to bully in order to win and to survive. This is why it is so important to teach bullies the answer is NO. NO you're not going to hurt and offend children incarcerated. You're not going to demean them, big note yourself, do unto them as you'd never want done to you! If you going to treat people so deplorable you're fired!

It feels as though we're raising more and more people to feel entitled to be cruel, to bully, to think they have to be big and powerful to matter, that dumping on another person in no position of power makes the abuser feel more powerful.

People in a position of control over others should NOT be treating others as though they have no worth. EVER!

If you have to belittle others in order to feel powerful, you have NO power!

Think about that.

My cousin was put in a group home for wayward girls (a detention center of sorts) because she kept running away from home. Her home life was bad. She had an alcoholic father who would get into alcohol fueled rages and beat up her mum and brothers. Not sure if or what he did to her, although even if she was not harassed, watching other family members be abused is terrible. While the mum also drank. She was more lenient, then would have flip out moments or aggression and assertion and cruelty.

I've seen my aunty get drunk and turn on people. It isn't pleasant.

Hence my cousin kept running away and was eventually placed in a girls group home. Did her being put in there do more damage than good? It's hard to say. I know she talked to other 'inmates' who were more wayward and learned a thing or two about duplicity. Did this help her have a better life moving forward? No, it did not!

My cousin ended up leaving home early. Moving far away from her family and marrying an abusive and controlling man who made her life hell. He isolated her from family and friends and most likely tormented and damaged their children as well. She suffered years and years of more abuse as an adult instead of escaping that type of life and having something better; for herself and her children.

Nowhere in my cousin's life did she learn, grow or develop the skills needed to have a better life.

She, and so many other unfortunate children like her, need more than just a detention center. She needed help. She needed a safe place to fall. She needed guidance from a decent and respectful role model.

I'm not a fan of locking children up. 

#1: They're children! 

#2: I don't think it's helpful in helping them develop better ways of being (assuming that is the goal). 

#3: The goal should be to get these children genuine and legitimate help. Locking them up doesn't achieve this and even more so if those in charge of looking after them are abusing them!

When I saw video footage of young Aboriginal boys being abused and neglected I wanted to hug them and tell them they're important and they matter and they deserve better!

All children deserve better!