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NITV speaks to ‘Don Dale teen’ about rehabilitation

“I’m not a bad person, I’ve made a lot of bad mistakes and it took me a long time to learn from them," Dylan Voller tells NITV.

NITV current affairs program, The Point, speaks to Dylan Voller, the teenager who featured in Four Corners‘ exposé on practices at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in the Northern Territory.

Tonight The Point has his first feature interview since commencing a rehabilitation program in Alice Springs after being granted an early release from detention.

“I’m disgusted in my behaviour and really not proud of the things I did and said when I was younger. I was a young kid, I’d had a fair bit of trauma, and I didn’t know how to cope with it and I acted out and that. All I can do is apologise to everyone that I did offend and move forward,” he said.

“Sometimes people don’t want anything to do with me because of my history …

“I’m not a bad person, I’ve made a lot of bad mistakes and it took me a long time to learn from them, but I have learnt from them now and I’m on the right path.”

NITV Channel Manager, Tanya Orman said, “As a trusted news program, NITV’s The Point delivers an intimate perspective of Youth Detention through the experience of Dylan Voller, who talks of life in rehabilitation and moving on from being known as the Boy In the Hood.”

Dylan Voller entered the justice system eight years ago, at just 11 years old, and became known as ‘the boy in the hood’ after images of him strapped to a chair in Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in the Northern Territory were etched onto screens worldwide. The footage sparked a royal commission into youth detention.

In a fortnight he could be a free man, for the first time in almost a decade.

NITV journalist Elliana Lawford spent time with Dylan in Alice Springs and he told her about his time in detention, “It was just a normal thing to just be staying in detention. Even staying in my room 24/7, it just became normal.

“At times I thought that that was the only place for me.”

The 19 year old is about to complete his 16-week court-ordered rehabilitation program in Alice Springs, after being granted early release from detention by the Northern Territory Supreme Court.

Commenting on his rehabilitation program at BushMob, Dylan said, “It’s completely different, you’ve got workers there that actually care, that are coming in to make a difference and supporting you, not just locking you in a cell and expecting you to just change automatically by yourself.

“It’s been pretty good, working with the team [at BushMob], getting my licence and getting myself a job. It’s been good to work with my counsellor and work with the other young fellas too.”

Dylan told The Point that the experience at BushMob has changed him.

Monday 22 May at 9pm on NITV.

One Response

  1. All the best mate. It’s all up to you but you seem to be on the right track. What happened to you in Don Dale was a national disgrace. Watching you on TV at the Royal Commission was so sad.

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