It’s been over a year since the Country Liberal Party won the Northern Territory election, promising “community safety” and tough-on-crime policies. They tightened bail laws, introduced more offences, increased penalties and lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 10, which has faced heavy criticism from a range of groups. So what is the result a year on?

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For one, these policies have driven prisoner numbers up by around 600, with a daily average of 2,834 people in the prison system in June 2025. Indigenous people make up 88 per cent of the adult prison population, and Indigenous children are close to 100 per cent of the youth detention population.

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When comparing NT to countries around the world, the incarceration rate is second only to El Salvador. This cements the NT as Australia's most imprisoned place, with an incarceration rate three times greater than the next highest jurisdiction, Western Australia. It also has the highest recidivism rate in the country, according to the Australian Productivity Commission, with six out of 10 prisoners returning to jail within two years after being released.

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The NT is also running out of prisons, and there’s not enough staff. A growing number of people are being imprisoned in police watch houses, due to capacity constraints at Territory prisons, and they’ve had to contract private security firm G4S to cover staff shortages, with ever-expanding responsibilities. The NT Aboriginal land councils are accusing the government of human rights abuses due to overcrowding and overt racism at the over-incarceration of Aboriginal people.

Spit hoods and restraint chairs have also been reinstated. The NT Police Force has confirmed that, since October 2024, spit hoods had once again been made available to use on youths in police watch houses and cells. Spit hoods have been subject to controversy due to a 2016 ABC Four Corners report, containing a shocking video showing a 17-year-old boy being strapped into a mechanical restraint chair in an NT facility. This led then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to announce the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. The royal commission recommended the spit hoods be outlawed.

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The age of criminal responsibility in the NT has also been lowered to 10, two years after it had been raised to 12 by the previous government. This is despite the United Nations recommending raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14. Considering youth justice contains nearly 100 per cent Indigenous children, it can be inferred that this will greatly impact Aboriginal communities.

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All this change and serious crime isn’t improving. Data from the NT Police Force shows an increase in violent crimes. Between December 2024 and July 2025, 8,579 offences against the person – including assault, sexual assault, robbery and homicide – were recorded across the Northern Territory, a 2.5 per cent increase from the same period a year prior. However, there has been a reduction of property crime in the same period, which the government has claimed shows the success of their policies. The medium to longer term impacts of such policies, however, are yet to be seen.

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So the NT Government has kept their election promises. But the question remains: is being tough on crime and being serious about crime reduction the same thing? Is the NT walking into a more criminalised and less safe future? And what about Aboriginal children? It makes you think: is this an eye for an eye until we are all blind – or until everyone is in jail?