Mandatory sentencing: Justice for young indigenous people

O 10 February 2000, a 15-year-old young man, killed himself while in the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre serving a 28 day sentence under the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing law. For stealing pens and paint from a local school valued at around $100, he was sent 800 kilometers from his island home to the detention centre. Five days from the end of his detention, the boy hanged himself after he was sent to his room for refusing to help clean up after a meal. He was found hanging from a sheet tied around his neck. Despite attempts to revive him he did not regain consciousness and died in hospital.