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david mcguire
23 November 2018

Youth Detention expert David McGuire visits Darwin

Mr David McGuire, the CEO of Fundación Diagrama (Diagrama) which operates youth detention facilities in Spain and the U.K. under a therapeutic model visited Darwin last week from 12-16 November. During the week, he met with local organisations, government and the media to talk about an alternative approach to youth detention.  

The Diagrama model has been implemented across Spain, France and the U.K. and is achieving excellent results for the young people and for the community as a whole, with recidivism rates among young people who have participated significantly lower than the rates in Spain under previous models. Across all the Diagrama centres in Spain, the recidivism rate is around 20% after three years and among the centres that cater for lower level offending it is around 10%. Based on data from the AIHW (2017), recidivism rates were estimated to be 75% for youths who are sentenced to detention in the NT, meaning the vast majority of youths will return to detention in the following year. (Deloitte Access Economics, 2017 p.62) 

Here’s a link to a BBC documentary about the facilities which highlights the effectiveness of the approach

BBC Video

David also delivered a presentation at Danila DIlba in Darwin. Here is the video of his presentation:

View Video Presentation

Below is a link to a radio interview David had with the ABC:

ABC Radio Interview