Culture

‘Four Corners’ May Be Serving Up Another Story About Abuse In Detention Soon

"We’ve been flooded with so much correspondence... It isn’t confined to one state."

by Meg Watson  10 August 2016

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In the weeks since airing their groundbreaking report on abuse in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, Four Corners has been bombarded with new stories. Though the episode — which featured the now-iconic image of 17-year-old Dylan Voller, head covered, strapped to a chair by his neck — was roundly described at the time as “shocking”, many Australians have actually found it uncomfortably familiar.

“[The response to the piece] has been wild,” Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna told Junkee. “We’ve been flooded with so much correspondence; so many emails and letters coming from people who watched. There are a lot of people saying they’ve experienced similar things in different states — children in incarceration. It was maybe idealistic to think this kind of conduct or behaviour was confined to the Northern Territory. It seems it isn’t.”

Though Meldrum-Hanna hasn’t released any information about these alleged instances of abuse, she told us they may well complicate the matter for the government’s recently-announced Royal Commission. Despite many claiming alleged abuses in Victoria and offshore detention centres warrant similar scrutiny, the government’s investigations are currently confined to the Northern Territory government and justice system.

“[These new claims] make the calls for the Royal Commission to expand all the more relevant and meaningful,” Meldrum-Hanna said. “It isn’t confined to one state.”

Though the reporter was adamant she will “absolutely” follow-up on the stories people are bringing her, she made it clear we could be waiting awhile for another report. At the time of speaking, she was taking a well-earned break to “recalibrate [her] brain”, and she also pointed out that the Don Dale report took a full eight weeks to get to air.

“It’s bloody hard to get the footage,” she said. “It took a long time for us to get our hands on that bullet-proof, rock-solid gold evidence of this stuff happening [in Don Dale]. Talking heads are one thing, and anonymous sources and claims, but actually finding the boys and the guards and getting the vision [is another].”

So. Here we go again. Between this and The Guardian‘s recent unveiling of 2,000 leaked reports of abuse in offshore detention, it seems Australia has no shortage of undiscovered horror for reporters willing to dig long enough. Royal Commissions all ’round.

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You can read more about how Caro Meldrum-Hanna got her report on Don Dale together in our full interview here.