Little has changed since days of transportation
My interest in the detention of youth in the NT has been totally piqued. So piqued that I thought I'd read The Fatal Shore again. It's a jolly travelogue. It covers the 80 years of transportation of convicts to Australia and how they were treated, both en route and post-arrival. The many accounts of people being physically punished and restrained mechanically in the most appalling conditions (some killed in the process) will test your imagination. Then transport yourself to modern-day Australia and you will see we haven't really progressed in the way we treat people, especially if they have any trace of Aboriginal ancestry. Young offenders, predominantly poor and disaffected, are experiencing a level of cruel treatment that is difficult to comprehend.
David Legat, South Morang 
Governments continue to ignore advice
The PM could show further leadership by insisting all levels of government implement the 339 recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. By ignoring most of them, successive federal governments have set the scene for this recent tragic scenario. Their implementation would send a strong positive message to Indigenous Australia and the public as a whole. Meg Paul, Camberwell
When there's the will, there's a way
The mining boom has been and gone, along with the profits. But neither our indigenous people, on whose land most of it took place, nor the average Australian has seen much improvement in the nation's infrastructure. Public schools, the health system and Indigenous communities continue to decay.
This latest scandal is just the symptom of a deep systemic rot, with the NT government only the flag-bearer. Visit any remote community and see how our native brothers and sisters are disrespected and deprived of the normal services we all expect. This, despite the funnelling of vast sums of public money into state coffers. Indigenous youth form 80 per cent of the prison population yet are a tiny proportion of the general population. They often speak several languages but are not literate in English. They are taught by outsiders with little relevant training and few resources. The elders could do a better job long-term if they were consulted, or offered support and training. Ask leading Indigenous advocates Larissa Behrendt, Marcia Langton, Chris Sarra, or Mick Dodson; or a novel approach, community leaders.
The Sami people in sub-Arctic Scandinavia are a case-study of a small population of indigenous people in charge of their destiny. It can be done. If the will and determination are there.
Maggie Morgan, Northcote
Brutality doesn't change behaviour
The behaviour of dogs, horses and other animals can't be changed through brutality. Why should young people be any different? Education, training, respect, homes, jobs and compassion are the only answers. Stephen Dinham, Surrey Hills
Out of sight, out of mind
No one would begrudge the NT abuse victims a royal commission. But it makes one wonder what people with disabilities need to do to get a royal commission to look into the long-standing widespread abuse they have suffered and continue to suffer. As highlighted by a Senate inquiry last year, children and adults with disabilities are being abused in child care, schools, state care and institutions in all states of Australia. Yet there has been hardly a murmur in response to the Senate committee's recommendation for a royal commission. Is it because there's no footage? The lives of people with disabilities matter.
Julie Phillips, Disability Discrimination Legal Service