Deputy Chief and Corrections Minister Gerard Maley says the Corrections Department refused to escort a youth offender, who was given Supreme Court bail to attend a family funeral in Lajamanu because it assessed the risks as “too high.” 

The 17-year-old went to the funeral, on a chartered flight costing taxpayers more than $7,000 and absconded from Department of Children and Families staff, with police deployed to re-arrest him. 

Minister Maley told Katie Woolf he has requested an urgent review into how often Territory taxpayers are footing the bill to fly prisoners around on compassionate bail, adding that normal practice for adult prisoners is for them or their families to pay the travel costs.

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