As of 2016, Voller had a troubled early life, and had been expelled and or excluded from primary schools in Alice Springs due to assaulting others, including breaking another child's arm in kindergarten. Dylan was in and out of juvenile detention since he was 11 years old, for car theft, robbery and assault. He spent time at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin, Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre and, aged 17, at Alice Springs adult prison. During that time he has been involved in more than 200 prison incidents of, self harm, assault on staff and others since he was jailed for aggravated robbery and endangering a police officer in 2014. Voller has served two of the three sentences given to him over an alleged drug-fuelled crime spree in which he attacked a man and tried to run down a policeman. He spent time in Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre and the behavioral management unit at Don DaleYouth Detention Centre in Darwin. Dylan has a long history of self harm and suicidal actions requiring intervention by staff in juvenile facilities. During that time he was restrained by the neck, was at eleven years physically thrown into his cell, isolated, stripped naked and tear gassed.
Footage of Voller shackled to a restraining chair within the adult Alice Springs correctional center was featured on the ABC TV programFour Corners' episode "Australia's Shame" in July 2016. It caused widespread outrage and prompted Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull to announce a royal commission into the treatment of youth in the child protection and youth detention systems in the Northern Territory. Mistreatment in youth detention had been widely reported prior to the Four Corners report. He has publicly apologised for his crimes. Voller gave limited evidence at the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory in December 2016. He was released from prison in February 2017 and has been advocating for improved conditions for youth in detention. In 2017 it was discovered that Voller's confidential files were dumped at the Alice Springs rubbish tip.
