New South Wales has one of the lowest age barriers for locking up children in the world. All it does is shackle children into a vicious cycle of crime. That is why come Thursday 4 June I will spend a night in prison at Yasmar Detention Centre.
The CEO and co-founder of the The Misfits Media Company David Hovenden and I will be taking part in UnLtd’s Adland Bail Out, a confronting experience that brings participants face-to-face with the harsh realities of youth incarceration.
Keeping a watchful eye over us are screws for the night, B&T‘s very own Arvind Hickman and industry legend Greg “Sparrow” Graham, among other industry stalwarts who are set to make our night living hell — an experience too many young people face daily.
The only way they will let us leave in the morning is if we raise $1,500. At this rate, Hovenden will be returning to the office alone, leaving myself locked up in the cold, hard cell.
This is because my boss has already hit the quota, but I have only managed $110.00.
Please help me get released from the Detention Centre by donating here.
If you do want to see this hack stay locked up, then donate for a better cause. The funds raised from Adland Bail Out go towards UnLtd’s work to end the vicious cycle of youth incarceration, by advocating for better alternatives, prevention and stopping the imprisonment of children as young as 10.
Your donation will help UnLtd to fight for kids – so they’re met with support and not a prison cell.
This is an extremely important cause as Australia is one of the only developed countries that imprisons children as young as 10. The nation currently has 8,982 young people aged 10-17 that are under youth justice supervision.
Many young people end up in detention due to circumstances that they’re born into and incarceration often starts a ‘revolving door’ of reoffending and incarceration. In fact, 85 per cent of young people aged 10-17 released from sentenced detention return within 12 months.
The First Nations community is affected worse by youth incarceration. First Nations people represent only four per cent of Australian population, however, 57 per cent of young people in detention are First Nations young people.
It’s not just a child wellbeing issue, incarceration of children is also a huge cost for the taxpayers. In NSW, it costs $2,749 per child, per night in prison, costing over $1 million dollars annually per every child in detention.
Experts agree that children do not belong in prison and there are much better alternatives. That’s where UnLtd comes in. It works with several impactful charities doing critical work to prevent and stop the revolving door of juvenile detention.
The target myself and my 71 other cellmates are trying to hit is $150,000. We are just shy of halfway, with just over a week to go.
Leading the pack is Aaron Boekestein from Google, The Marketing Academy’s Emma Beaumont and Adform APAC MD John Harvey Faurholt.
