Youth detention centre in ‘acute crisis’

Western Australia’s Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services released its latest report into Banksia Hill on Thursday, based on the findings of the inspector, Eamon Ryan.

“What we found was an emergency,” Mr Ryan said.

“Every element of Banksia Hill was failing, often through no fault of its own or the efforts of staff.

“Ultimately, we saw young people, staff and a physical environment in acute crisis.”

Mr Ryan and a specialist team examined Banksia Hill in February, before the report was handed down to both houses of parliament in early May — just one day before rioting at the facility.

A month had to pass before the report could be publicly released.

“Our inspection team included specialist advisers covering education, young people, health and mental health, and cultural safety,” Mr Ryan said.

“And we intended to use our experts’ knowledge and advice to examine whether the care being provided to the young people was trauma informed and contemporary.”

But Banksia Hill was in lockdown every day of the 10 day inspection.

“Mr Ryan’s report urges the Department to rethink and reimagine the staffing model, detailing how the daily staff shortages were ‘unprecedented’, that attrition was ‘unsustainable’, and that recruitment was struggling to ‘keep pace’,” reads a release accompanying the report.

Mr Ryan said it was clear that what has been tried to date has not worked.

“Under the current staffing model, the only way to provide safety for young people when there are not enough staff is by being locked in cell.

“It is a self-perpetuating cycle because the young people’s isolation increases their anxieties, anger and frustration and sometimes they act out negatively to themselves and others.

“When staff respond to these incidents, this often leads to more and longer lockdowns.”

Mr Ryan said the help detainees need are often the types of support programs most heavily impacted by staff shortages.

He said the state government needs to consider building another youth detention facility, claiming “Banksia Hill as the one-size-fits-all approach does not work.”

He said while a new facility would not solve the facility’s problem short-term, it would address the state’s youth detention needs in the medium-to-long term.

The report being made public coincides with ministerial oversight of corrections being passed from Bill Johnson to Paul Papalia.

Mr Papalia was sworn in as new corrections minister earlier on Thursday, and will now be responsible for addressing the problems plaguing Banksia Hill.

A series of riots at the facility have seen extensive damage to infrastructure, with inmates starting fires and climbing onto roofs in hours-long stand-offs.