Inspector found recurring crisis situation at Banksia Hill in Western Australian which has been compounded ‘by denial and spin’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Security staff at Perth’s Banksia Hill detention centre used capsicum gas, flash grenades and “pointed firearm laser sights on the youth to restore order”, a report by the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services has found.

The report, released this week, said conditions at the centre had improved since May 2017, when a small group of detainees caused extensive damage over two days and hid in the roof space for several hours.

However, it also raised concerns about the decision to indefinitely house two detainees identified as “high risk” for their alleged role in the May security breach in the isolated Intensive Support Unit, saying they lacked adequate access to education and other support.

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Amnesty International made a formal complaint about the use of the isolation unit, saying one detainee has now been in an ISU cell for 340 days. That complaint is being investigated separately by the inspector, Neil Morgan.

Morgan said underlying issues of rolling lockdowns, staff shortages and the inability to separate detainees into different groups meant he was not confident positive changes would be maintained.

“There are grounds to be cautiously optimistic but I also have a depressing sense of déjà vu,” Morgan said. “For the nine years I have been in this job, Banksia Hill has lurched from crisis to partial recovery and then back into crisis ... Every period of crisis has been preceded by poor leadership and management, compounded by denial and spin.”

Human rights groups called for a drastic overhaul of the centre, saying the use of weapons like laser-sighted bean bag shotguns in response to security incidents in 2016 and 2017 was unacceptable.

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Morgan said the decision to point laser firearm sights at detainees was without precedent in WA and “probably in Australia”.

The bulk of those incidents occurred after a royal commission was called following exposure of similar tactics at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale detention centre.

“Like Don Dale, Banksia Hill is a sinking ship that should be abandoned and replaced with small, home-like facilities,” Ruth Barson, director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said.

The report criticised the use of regular lockdowns to cover staff shortages, including a half-day lockdown on Wednesdays that saw detainees confined to their cells so staff could complete regular training.

It also criticised the use of strip searches, which decreased from 9,067 in 2015 to 3,746 in 2016, a figure Morgan said remained too high.

Only 10 contraband items were found in those 12,813 strip searches – seven in 2015 and three in 2016.

George Newhouse, principal solicitor with the National Justice Project, said conditions at Banskia Hill during 2016 and early 2017 were “on a level with Don Dale”.

He called on the McGowan government, which was critical of the decision to close WA’s only other youth detention centre in 2012 and repeatedly critical of the management of Banksia Hill while in opposition, to fix the problem.

The corrections minister, Fran Logan, said the number of detainees at Banksia Hill had dropped to about 154 from a peak of 170 in July last year, when Morgan’s inspection took place.

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The centre has also since employed a principal for the Banksia Hill school and developed an operational philosophy, both of which were among the 16 recommendations in Tuesday’s report.

Logan said he agreed WA needed a second youth detention centre but that the state could not afford to build it.

“There is no question that Banksia Hill should not be the only youth justice facility in Western Australia,” he said.

But he said there was “no escaping the state’s severe financial constraints.”

The WA government in December committed $120m to adding 700 beds to the adult prison system.

Logan said that, combined with the “enormous complexities” of youth justice, made “other options extremely challenging in these current financial circumstances”.