However, when an outside institution assumes that role it can lead to the manifestation of a problem rather than its cure, as families retreat owing to bureaucratic constraints and misunderstandings. The irony of the situation is that their conscious abstinence from impending processes is used against them, their children and the Aboriginal community generally, as such action is interpreted as that they 'couldn't care less' attitude resulting in the child being 'rescued' from a perceived hostile and unsupportive environment. Subsequently they are placed into an environment that is considered by the processes of Government to be more morally appropriate and supportive to the individual child. Aboriginal children within the contemporary situation are confronted with the same value based assumptions that saw so many of their adult members introduced into an alien system for indoctrination to a 'better way of life', value assumptions that entertain a strong racial bias, which perceive their Aboriginality as a handicap which needs to be treated as such. Therefore Aboriginal youth, like many adult members are confined to an environment that is biased toward the dominant value system of mainstream society.
Cultural acknowledgement is piecemeal and at best tokenistic.
Aboriginal youth in contemporary settings have to endure some of the same misfortunes that confronted members of their adult population, where, within the confines of the compound, all endeavours are geared toward them acquiring a 'respectable' position within society. In the youth context the formation of social relationships within the institutions that continue on their release from such institutions, is particularly pertinent to the issue of offending and reoffending. Submissions put before my Commission often referred to peer group influence when the issue of juvenile offending was discussed. The high ratio of Aboriginal inmates plus the interconnectedness of the Aboriginal community throughout the State, means that the likelihood of inmates forming a lasting or ongoing relationship, regardless of the period of confinement, is substantially heightened, as incarceration is the factor on which the relationship is aligned. Incarceration as a deterrent has been shown to be an ineffective means of dealing with the issue of Aboriginal juvenile offending.