Corners is an Australian television program, broadcast on the ABC channel, that could best be described as an investigative documentary style program presenting current affairs. It is Australia’s longest running current affairs program which has now been running for 56 years, first premiering in 1961. Four Corners has gained a positive reputation for presenting facts with limited opinion based content, generally following a different structure to other current affairs programs. However, any investigative journalism program has the potential to set the tone of the program and present the information with a certain perspective. Since its inception, Four Corners has exposed scandals, triggered numerous inquiries, reported on confronting taboos …show more content…
and inspired many debates through the production of episodes covering varied topics (Fogerty, 2017). Four Corners has been nominated and won many awards for investigative journalism, and has been responsible for reporting on many high-profile stories and issues which has then resulted in public outrage and consequent inquiries. On the 25th July 2016, Four Corners presented an episode which exposed the indecent treatment of youthful prisoners in the Northern Territory. This story led to numerous media outlets reporting the same information the following day, and a subsequent Royal Commission into the matter. This essay will examine this episode of Four Corners titled ‘Australia’s Shame’, thoroughly discussing and dissecting the information delivered by the ABC in this episode and the message it intended to send to wider audiences about the topic. Four Corners journalists, researchers and producers worked relentlessly over a ten week period to expose the mistreatment of Indigenous youth in the Northern Territory, which saw the documentary receive the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award in 2016 (UNAA, Victoria, 2016). This episode of Four Corner begins with a warning of distressing scenes, which immediately sets the scene of the program.
One of the first pieces of footage to be shown is a young boy who is hooded, shackled and strapped to a restraint chair by a number of guards and then left there for hours. The basis of this episode is the youth detention system in the Northern Territory that incarcerates children as young as ten years old, in barbaric, inhumane conditions at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in 2014. The program discusses six boys between the ages of fourteen and seventeen who were detained in the isolation wing of the detention center for up to 23 hours per day for up to fifteen days straight. All of the boys who are shown in the program are Indigenous youth. The CCTV footage of the boys clearly shows the children displaying signs of being deeply distressed. One of the young boys is asking repeatedly why he is in there and when he is going to be released, while a group of prison officers can be seen on the other side of the steel door laughing at his anguish and inappropriately commenting. The boys being held in the isolation wing were deprived of basic necessities, such as running water and sunlight. The weather conditions in the Northern Territory are extremely hot and humid, the cells were without any form of cooling, such as fans or air conditioning. A lawyer being interviewed on the program, representing the North Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency, was visibly distressed when being questioned about the treatment of the boys and the conditions that he witnessed whilst inside the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. He described the conditions in the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre as goulish, medieval and pure hell. Four Corners also showed footage of prison guards using tear gas on the boys at close range for up to eight minutes, with the boys then being shackled and dragged outside to be sprayed with a fire hose. The boys can be heard in
severe distress, injured and struggling to breathe. The Department of Corrections reported this particular incident to police, informing police that the boys had escaped and were armed, and therefore the treatment by the prison guards was justified. The media subsequently reported the incident as a riot within the prison. The representative lawyer for the North Australia Aboriginal Youth Justice agency expressed grave concerns over Corrective Services deliberate effort to cover up the truth surrounding this particular incident. From the footage shown, there were no signs of any of the boys being armed, nor was there any signs of a riot. What can be seen in the footage, is severe distress at being held in the isolation wing without basic necessities (www.abc.net.au). Jake Roper, who was incarcerated at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre bravely came forward to tell his story in an attempt to stop it happening to any other children. Jake Roper was incarcerated after stealing a car while he was homeless. He escaped from custody, was recaptured and then sent into the isolation wing of Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. He describes being treated like an animal, feeling angry, depressed and alone, and is haunted by disturbing memories of being incarcerated. Judge Sue Oliver speaks out on the program about the mistreatment of young people who she describes as being damaged, and does not feel confident that the problem is being solved by detaining these young people. Solicitor, Jared Sharp was given a tour of the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre by the Minister of Corrections, he was visibly distressed by what he saw inside the centre and blew the whistle by reporting the abuse to the Children’s Commissioner. Howard Bath, the Commissioner at the time, agreed that the treatment of the boys was barbaric and sparked an immediate investigation into the victimisation of children incarcerated (www.abc.net.au). An ABC media report in 2017 provides information that has come out the Royal Commission to date, such as regular offensive terms used towards the youth while incarcerated, often racist in nature. The report notes that a group of officers were more focused on punishing the young offenders and wielding power over them. Young inmates lacked adequate activities to engage in and occupy time. Medical and psychological help was also limited, with offenders only being able to seek assistance for mental health issues once they had been labeled to be at risk, which was generally after they had already self-harmed. The Royal Commission is still ongoing (Vanovac, 2017) This episode of Four Corners sparked the Don Dale Royal Commission, within 24 hours of the program airing on the ABC. Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull made an announcement that the Northern Territory's youth justice and child protection system would be thoroughly investigated (ABC News, 31 March, 2017). Despite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnball being criticised for his hasty response to the issue, the Royal Commission is still continuing today. ABC news commented that it was the first time in history one forty-five minute program had created an impact so great that by the next morning the Prime Minister has called for a Royal Commission (Meade, 2016). The footage shown was so compelling and images the general public would ordinarily not see, creating such an impact that the Government was forced to act (Meade, 2016). Although the interim report has now been handed to the Government, the process is far from being concluded (ABC News, 31.03.2017). It is mentioned in several news reports and Government responses that the portrayal by Four Corners was one sided and failed to make mention of the efforts made by the former Corrections Minister to address problems relating to youth justice (The Australian, July 27, 2017). Corrections Minister, Mr Elferink stated in an interview that this episode of Four Corners had been presented in a calculated manner to create maximum impact, without giving context to the circumstances (The Australian, July 27, 2017). The outrage from the general public, professionals and politicians after this episode of Four Corners aired is an example of effects theory. Effects theory suggests that the mass media or communications through the media make people powerless to resist the message the media outlet intends on sending (Boda & Szabo, 2011). Regardless of whether the information being delivered is completely accurate and without bias, the manner in which a message is delivered can result in how it is interpreted. The media have a significant influence in shaping beliefs and attitudes about the criminal justice system and crime more broadly (Boda & Szabo, 2011), once the message has been delivered the effects can be immediate and obvious (Neuman & Guggenheim (2011). This was the case after this episode of Four Corners aired. Immediately after this episode of Four Corners aired, an episode of ABC’s Q & A followed, where the topic was discussed by the panel members including Gillian Trigg from the Human Rights Commission. The content and footage shown in the Four Corners episode was described as horrifying, shocking and disgraceful by the panel members and the need for further investigation was discussed. This was an example of the message being delivered through the Four Corners program having an immediate effect on not only panel members of Q & A but the general public in the audience. An additional theory relevant here is reception theory, which suggests that the producers of media encode their intended message and the audiences decode the messages and respond by way of their interpretation of the message, which can vary due to different cultures and beliefs (Kitzinger, 2015). In this case, the dominant message received by the audiences was a negative portrayal of the treatment of incarcerated youth, however on the flip side, a small minority saw the portrayal presented by Four Corners as biased and not showing the positive side of the work by the Department of Corrections. The response by audiences to media articles can be diverse depending on the different cultures, class and age of the audience (Kitzinger, 2015).
A reality where the prisoner is dehumanized and have their rights and mental health abused. “I have endured lockdowns in buildings with little or no heat; lockdowns during which authorities cut off the plumbing completely, so contraband couldn’t be flushed away; and lockdowns where we weren’t allowed out to shower for more than a month” (Hopkins 154). A prisoner currently must survive isolation with improper shelter in the form of heat. Issues compound with a lack of running water and bathing, a proven severe health danger, especially for someone lacking proper nutrients such as a prisoner in lockdown. These abuses of physical well being then manifest into damage of prisoners’ mental well being. “Perhaps I should acknowledge that the lockdown-and, indeed, all these years-have damaged more than I want to believe” (Hopkins 156). Even for the experienced prisoner the wrath of unethically long lockdowns still cause mental damage. Each and every isolation period becomes another psychological beating delivered as the justice system needlessly aims to damage the already harmed inmates. The damage is so profound inmates even recognize the harm done to them by their jailors. An armed and widely used psychological weapon, the elongated lockdown procedures decimate mental health each and every time
The novel offers insight into a corrupted system that is failing today’s youth. This system places children into state custody with environments that are academically and socially incompetent. These children suffer within a corrupted system that denies resources and attention during the most crucial period in their emotional development. They develop very few meaningful adult relationships, endure damaging environments, and ultimately become trapped in a system that often leads to a prison life.
Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying
The Aboriginal Legal Services was an Aboriginal organisation generated by these activists to defend Black People’s rights and of families who passed away in custody. Across the country there have been many alarming deaths in prison and police custody which caused a real distress in the early 1980s amongst the Aboriginal community. During an investigation conducted by the RCIADIC nearly 99 deaths occurred in police custody in one average year. The difficult interaction between CJS and Aboriginal’s into Aboriginal Deaths in custody according to the Royal Commission has had an essential impact of
Locking a prisoner in a cell the size of a person’s bathroom, for 22 to 23 hours a day, without any human contact, violates every one of those values. The use of long-term solitary confinement is said to be form of torture, a form of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment prohibited by law. Solitary confinement is not only cruel, it tends to be counterproductive, and cause people to become angry, and raged with the system rather then think positively about their reintegration process. After the becoming publicly known the deaths of several imamates while in long-term solitary confinement, in Ontario prisons the Ontario Human Rights Commission has began to investigate several prisons across the province. According to Marie-France Lalonde, Ontario's corrections minister “We really want to see a clear legal framework that not only defines segregation but requires independent oversight of segregation decisions, includes caps for consecutive and aggregate periods of segregation and explicitly prohibits segregation for people with mental health disabilities, physical disabilities and pregnant women” (Porter, 2017, para. 16).
Despite these repulsive behaviors, the most common vile behavior seen throughout the documentary is the inmates covering their windows with blood from cutting themselves with razor blades. Convicts execute these self-harming habits for countless reasons. Despite these unsettling, eye opening situations, the most disturbing aspect of the film is hearing prisoners discuss their experiences in isolation and how it has negatively affected them psychologically. This typically results in a prisoner cutting themselves, bleeding all over their cell and covering themselves in their own blood. Inmates propose that being placed in isolation hinders their ability to be re-integrated into society once they finish serving their sentence. However, the detainee’s bad behavior in the isolation unit simply leads to their isolation sentencing time being increased. This results in more detrimental behavior of the inmates and an increasing amount of self-harm conduct. Although the warden of the prison is aware of the effect isolation has on the prisoners, he continues to use segregation as a source of punishment for offenders who misbehave and to ensure correctional officers and other inmates are safe from dangerous
The McCreary Centre Society. (2005). Time Out II: A profile of BC Youth in Custody.
Many people have heard or read about the situations of child celebrities such as Jenna Malone, Drew Barrymore, Christina Ricci, Michelle Williams and Macauley Culkin or child athletes like Dominique Moceanu, but few have heard of a more compelling situation than that of Aaron Kipnis. This young man was brutally beaten by his stepfather at the age of eleven. Instead of punishing his stepfather, the state of California made the eleven-year-old a ward of the state. Being a ward, in the state juvenile system, was a horrific experience. For the next five years, Kipnis began a cycle of running away, getting caught, and living in temporary housing.
Antisocial personality disorder is a personality disorder marked by a general pattern of disregard for a violation of other people’s rights. Explanations of antisocial personality disorder come from the psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and biological models. As with many other personality disorders, psychodynamic theorists propose that this disorder starts with an absence of parental love during infancy leading to a lack of basic trust. In this view, the children that develop this disorder respond to early inadequacies by becoming emotionally distant, and they bond with others through use of power and destructiveness. Behavioral theorists have suggested that antisocial symptoms may be learned through modeling, or imitation. As evidence, they point to the higher rate of antisocial personality disorder found among the parents of people with this disorder. Other behaviorists suggest that some parent’s unintentionally teach antisocial behavior by regularly awarding a child’s aggressive behavior. The cognitive view says that people with this disorder hold attitudes that trivialize the importance of other people’s needs. Cognitive theorists also believe that these people have a genuine difficulty recognizing a point of view other than their own. Finally studies show that biological factors may play an important role in developing antisocial disorder. Researchers have found that antisocial people, particularly those with high impulse and aggression, display lower serotonin activity and has been linked this same activity with other studies as well.
It is important to understand the cultural tradition carried out by Indigenous Australians because they are still practiced today. A strategy would be running workshops to get an education about policing directly from officers and youths sharing their cultural values and tradition (Grant, H 2015). This strategy provides police officers to learn about the Indigenous youth and their culture, while the youths build a positive relationship with police aiming to developing confidence and becoming a better role model in their community (Cunneen 2001). In regards to the case study if the ingenious children would have been involved in programs like this or had a better relationship with the police they would not have stolen the car or been shot (Cunneen 2001).
This shows how instead of having kids get rehabilitated in an a jail it is actually harming them. In adult prisons, “they are also kids that are in for minor crimes. They should not be in adult prison but instead in juvenile facilities where they can be rehabilitated”(Bechtold). This might be linked to the color of skin of a kid because judges think they are dangerous. “Out of all the juveniles, 32.1 percent of them in adult prisons reported being attacked with a weapon while being incarcerated. This could led to many juvenile deaths”(Bechtold). This fact is important because instead of being rehabilitated they are fighting for their lives. They come out thinking everyone is out to hurt them because of what they have endured during the time the have been in prison.Lisa Poliak, author of Teen Crime Adult Time Each Year, Thousands of Juvenile Offenders are Sent to Prison. Does the Practise Discourage Criminal Behavior- Or is it Cruel and Unusual Punishment?,did a case of a kid named Jason
“It’s difficult to believe a human being would inflict so much pain and… so much brutality towards another human being,” said Detective Daniel Villars. In the documentary, “The Confession Tapes: 8th and H”, emphasizes on how a false confession tape ruined the lives of five innocent teenagers. Catherine Fuller was the victim of the brutal assault and murder that occurred at the alley of 8th and h street. The documentary argues that the suspects of the murder were teenage boys that were classified as “wolfpack” by the media. Some of them were questioned without their parent’s knowledge, and were all questioned for hours and hours without any break. There were found guilty for the crimes and sentenced 35 years to-life for a murder they didn't
Imagine a world in which all of life’s problems could all just go away at the click of a button. A world where every individual on the face of planet earth is being watched 24/7, therefore eliminating any possibility of a crime being committed. Imagine, if just for a moment, a world where everyone and everything are connected by the same network, which would in essence create a full and complete circle. This is the world that serves as the setting for Dave Eggers novel The Circle. The Circle is a novel about Mae, the young and enthusiastic protagonist, who gets a job at a company known as The Circle. The Circle is a revolutionary company that is creating all sorts of new and exciting technology that appear to benefit the human race as a whole.
A. The "'Camera on Every Corner': Protection or Invasion?" ABC News. The. ABC News Network, 29 July 2007.
There are various influences on everyone’s lives while growing up. I believe the greatest of these influences is the neighborhood you grew up in. I grew up in a quite large, welcoming neighborhood. While living in this neighborhood, I was outgoing and remarkably talkative. Making friends became second nature to me. Playing outdoors from sunrise to sundown playing sports or exploring the outdoors with my friends became a daily routine for me. I was outgoing, talkative, and active. I believe this is the result of the neighborhood I grew up in.