Giving everyone the right to sport

Sport – and physical activity in general – is ingrained in the Australian way of life. They form an important part of the country’s modern cultural identity, which begins early in life.

Almost half of all young Australians – or 47 per cent under the age of 15 – engage in organized sport or physical activity at least once a week, and the participation rate among older teenagers is significantly higher at over 80 per cent.

This significant commitment by Australian youth to sport and physical activity is encouraging as it offers tremendous benefits for young people’s physical and emotional health, social development, healthy lifestyle learning and even supports trauma recovery.

At a societal level, we also see implications for social cohesion and the promotion of peace in conflict-affected communities, as well as for community and economic development, among others.

In fact, sport and physical activity have proven so valuable to individuals, communities and our collective society that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared sport and physical activity a fundamental human right.

Unfortunately, this opportunity to play sports is not available to all youth who face barriers such as financial cost, racism, sexism, ableism and xenophobia. Therefore, a certain level of privilege is required to gain access to and reap the benefits of sport.

One group of young people who are particularly affected by inequities of access are youth involved in the justice system.

Despite the increasing vulnerability of these young people and the constructive role that sport could play in reducing inequalities, the existing infrastructure is currently insufficient to support meaningful participation throughout the system.

We must increase the use of sport among our young people who are imprisoned for the benefits it creates for everyone in society.

EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO SPORT

More than 9,000 young people are involved in juvenile justice in Australia. Young people under the oversight of justice systems are five times more likely to come from the lowest socioeconomic sectors than young people from the highest.

Not unlike justice systems around the world, this country disproportionately criminalizes and imprisons ethnic minorities and First Nations people.

It has been found that after leaving prison, youth engaged in justice increasingly disengage from formal institutions such as education, higher rates of incarceration, lower levels of employment and poorer general health throughout life.

Around the world and in Australia, this group of young people is often seen as some of the most vulnerable in our societies – and resilient – because of the high structural and systemic inequalities they face before and after their integration into the system.

POSITIVE RESULTS OF PARTICIPATING IN SPORT

These challenging outcomes and widening inequalities require our society to tackle this very complex problem through innovative thinking.

There is a growing body of international research that underscores the role that sport can play in closing the gap on inequalities among young people committed to justice, and highlights sport as an important piece of the larger puzzle.

The alleged physical, social, and emotional benefits in this literature often mirror those we see at school and in the community. However, there are also many reported benefits unique to the prison environment.

For example, educational programs in sports and physical activity can support positive re-entry pathways for people leaving prison and security within the facility.

Yet despite these promising results, the cultural appreciation for the power of sport and the declaration of sport as a fundamental right, we continue to see some impressive one-off programs but not equal access and robust use of sport across juvenile justice systems around the world and here in Australia.

In reading national and state guidelines on sport in juvenile detention, we found differing standards on how access and programming should look.

BARRIERS TO FAIR ACCESS TO SPORT

The Australasian Juvenile Justice Administrators (AYJA), a collective body of senior leaders that provides standards and guidelines for juvenile justice across Australia, state in the Juvenile Justice Standards: “Children and young people are provided with access to a range of programs and activities that promote their development and well-being.”

While emphasizing the need for development and well-being programs, the standards make no mention of exercise.

At the state level, it has been promising to sometimes see more robust language in existing policies that deal with sport should be available daily to young people and should Be involved in the treatment program, including linking it to education or other rehabilitation outcomes.

However, the ACT Inspector of Correctional Services has reported that these guidelines have had difficulty implementing recommendations when issues such as suspensions, staff shortages or behavioral incidents impeded participation in the sport.

And unfortunately, there were differences in policies between states, meaning that depending on where a young person was incarcerated, they may or may not have access.

What we are seeing is that the existing infrastructure surrounding sport within the juvenile justice system is unable to support equitable access to all detention facilities, leaving it up to individual administrators and staff to do more to provide sport programming.

Often we find a passionate and outstanding employee taking on the task of building an exercise program, only to see that program unravel when that person leaves or changes roles.

Ultimately, deficiencies in the existing infrastructure lead to real-world challenges related to the prioritization, resource sourcing, well-informed information, maintenance and evaluation of sports programs. In other words, the current system does not support administrators, practitioners and young people to reach the reality of what the sport can offer.

ONE WAY FORWARD

Recognizing the gaps and inequalities that exist is the first step, and the second is recognizing the role that many of us play in the resolution in upholding the right to sport all Youth and Realizing the Power of Sport.

The UNESCO International Charter on Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport has extensively underlined the valuable role of sport in society.

Governments, intergovernmental organizations, sports institutions, researchers, educators, practitioners and coaches must commit to the principles of the Charter in order to enable the reality of what sport can achieve for the “social progress” of our world.

In practice, it provides a valuable resource to guide the necessary policy, academic and programmatic efforts required in Australian juvenile justice in relation to sport.

This could include an overhaul of policies mandating access to sport and tied to financial provisions, and increased research into juvenile justice and sport to build evidence-based programmes.

Other aspects include the widespread implementation of well-designed sports programs closely aligned with youth development principles, conducted by trained staff and coaches who are supported in evaluating these programs to encourage continuous improvement.

What we are asking for is to reshape policies, build programs, do research to encourage and strengthen the use of sport by our young people who are in prison, for all moral and evidence-based and economic reasons, why it makes sense.

But also because we want to live in a society in which sport is not a privilege but a right.

Disclosure: The views and information presented in this article are those of Dr. McDonough and do not represent the Fulbright program, IIE, or the US or Australian governments.

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