Jye Cardona knows dozens of harrowing stories of children "hardened" by a stint in the Northern Territory's notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.
The youth worker has seen the fear and boredom simmering inside the Darwin youth prison after working there for a number of years.
And now he hears stories he can't forget from the kids he's helping to get back on track and stay out of the system through the grassroots organisation he founded called Brother to Another.
The most recent, he recalled, was an 11-year-old who went into Don Dale and spent his first night talking to his older brother through the jail cells because he was scared.
So when the Northern Territory government announced last year it would be the first Australian jurisdiction to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12, it was a watershed moment for Mr Cardona.
There was applause inside parliament on the November night the bill was passed by a 16-8 majority.
"The revolving door to our detention centres stops here, the cycle of youth crime stops here," Attorney-General Chansey Paech said at the time.
Territory Families Minister Kate Worden said that while the legislation had passed, it would not commence operationally until "the second half of 2023 when expanded youth diversion programs are in place".
But critics say the programs should already have been in place, as raising the age of criminal responsibility was a key recommendation of the landmark 2017 Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children.
And they fear that, amid a public perception the laws have changed, the government is being too slow to act on legislation that should have been brought in years ago.
Mr Cardona said he expected to see a quick transition in the way youth diversion services — like Brother to Another — were funded, and a discontinuation of children being exposed to the Northern Territory's prison system.
"Instead, what we've seen is a continuation really, there hasn't been much change," he said.
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency's principal legal officer Nick Espie said the reforms were well overdue, and has questioned the delay.
"We are still seeing young people [aged 10 to 12] arrested, charged, and proceeding through the courts," he said.
"We're having to write to police and the prosecution around discontinuing those charges.
"It's not difficult to address what we need, it's not difficult to build the service response."
The 2017 royal commission also recommended the high security unit of Don Dale be shut immediately, and there be a plan to close the entire centre within three months, after outrage over children being shackled to chairs and tear-gassed, saying it was "wholly inappropriate".
Mr Espie said the government had had enough time to consider alternatives.
"What's been going on since 2017? Why haven't we got this this sort of service response that we already need to have for children?" he said
"We've heard this reasoning or this excuse [a lack of programs] in previous years as to why we haven't implemented this important recommendation."
Annmarie Lumsden, director of the NT Legal Aid Commission said while she acknowledged the Northern Territory has significant infrastructure and social needs to address, any delay in officially raising the age needed to be "for the shortest possible period".
"Raising the age of criminal responsibility is one of many important steps which are needed to ensure that the Northern Territory has a safer, smarter justice system," she said.
"The evidence shows that sending children to detention does not make the community safer."
Acting NT Children's Commissioner Nicole Hucks said there had been a steady increase in the number of children placed in detention since the NT government changed youth bail laws in 2021.
"Incarcerating children in youth detention centres genuinely [should be] the last resort," she said.
The Northern Territory government could not provide a specific time frame on when programs would be up and running, and did not respond to questions from the ABC regarding the progress of alternative programs, where they would be located, or what exactly they would be.
However Ms Worden said the programs would "take different forms and operate at different levels of intensity based on individual and family need".
"The programs will be early intervention principles, engaging families and responding quickly and appropriately to address high-risk behaviour," she said.
The Country Liberal Party (CLP) has maintained it would reverse the laws if elected to government at the next election.
Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro has said the CLP is "dead against" raising the age of criminal responsibility, arguing law breakers should be held accountable regardless of age.
"This puts the rights of the offender above the rights of the community to be safe," Ms Finocchiaro said.
"We couldn't be in a more opposite position on this policy."
