Scathing report on Adelaide’s Youth Justice Centre shows basic human rights not upheld

Children in Adelaide’s youth prison are spending nearly all their time locked in cells, an expert says, and are denied basic serviced and medical care.

The Adelaide Youth Justice Centre.

Staff shortages have been blamed for a scathing report that found “human rights abuses” at the Adelaide youth prison had become the norm.

Guardian for Children and Young People, Shona Reid, said she held grave concerns that the basic human rights of children and young people detained in Adelaide’s Youth Justice Centre were not being upheld.

The Cavan jail, also named Kurlana Tapa, takes inmates from courts for detention or remand.

But Ms Reid said the children and young people were spending extended periods in isolation, were being denied basic services, rehabilitative programs, and medical treatment.

“Chronic understaffing has created a totally unacceptable ‘new normal’ in which children and young people spend most of their time locked in their rooms without sufficient access to social, recreational, and meaningful activities, or even core services such as medical support,” she said.

Guardian for Children in State Care, Shona Reid. Picture: Mark Brake

“I am particularly concerned about self-harm and the difficulty the centre appears to have with avoiding psychosocial health related incidents that have been exacerbated by current restrictive conditions due to ongoing staff shortages.”

“We must protect the central rehabilitative purpose of youth detention, the task of which is not

simply to punish.

“This is especially the case for young people who really are incarcerated because they have exceptional needs that are not met in the community.

“Often with traumatic backgrounds, developmental and social vulnerabilities, perhaps with impaired cognitive or emotional regulation skills – they need a properly resourced therapeutic environment.”

Ms Reid said figures from the jail showed in the first week of June this year the children had spent only an average of one hour a day in school classes but 15 hours in their cells.

About 300 children – some also over 18 years-old – are jailed at the centre each year.

Responding to the attack, SA Health acknowledged there had been problems at the centre, which has been criticised for years by watchdogs.

“We are aware of staff shortages currently experienced and are committed to ensuring mental health care is not interrupted during this time,’’ a spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said more telehealth appointments would be used.

Ms Reid said nine out of 10 youths detained were on remand awaiting court action, and not convicted of any crime.

Ms Reid said there had been a history of complaints about the centre.

“These are not new issues, and no apparent prospect that this current crisis will be fixed in the foreseeable future,” she said.

“Young people make mistakes, but we must remember they are children.”

Ms Reid has also published a damning account of conditions at the prison by former attendee Lorna Robinson.

“Nearly a decade on and it’s hard for me to see that similar issues are still impacting young people,’’ she stated in a blog post.

“It’s even more concerning that society seems to turn a blind eye to the abuse and suffering that continues to occur within the centre.”