NT Office of the Children’s Commission reveals child kept in solitary isolation for 84 hours
‘It changed me’: An Aboriginal child was locked in their cell for three days straight and denied food and medication after a 2024 riot in Australia’s most notorious children’s prison, a damning investigation has revealed.
A Territory child was locked in solitary isolation for 84 hours straight and denied food and medication after a riot in Australia’s most notorious children’s prison.
The child, with a long history of trauma, mental health issues and self-harm, was locked in a cell at Don Dale Detention Centre for three-days straight in April 2024.
“It changed me,” the child said.
“It really messed with my head. I started stressing more … I started getting angry, it affected me and I couldn’t think straight because of what happened.”
On Thursday the NT Children’s Commissioner Shahleena Musk’s damning report was released exposing the treatment of the Aboriginal child in the Don Dale Detention Centre in April 2024.
Ms Musk said the 39-page report was tabled to the Parliament on Thursday, alleging that Youth Justice Officers breached Territory and International law in their treatment of the child.
The report said the breaches occurred in the wake of a 18-hour riot, in which 14 children caused damage, set fires and refused to come down from the roof on April 3.
The child at the centre of the OCC investigation was among the group of kids involved in the chaos, and at the time Territory Families confirmed the whole centre was put under an ‘indefinite lockdown’.
The Department confirmed there was a 25 per cent increase in the number of children locked up in the seven days before the riot, with a total of 44 young people in the cells.
The OCC report revealed that due to the damage from the April 2024 riot, many children were restricted to their accommodation blocks and all but one of the children involved in the disturbance were relocated to ‘Bravo Block’.
There was one child who refused to be moved to B-Block, and instead was left in their H-Block cell from April 9 to April 12.
The report found that a child — with a history of self-harm requiring daily treatment for his depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — was not allowed out of their cell for 84-hours.
In the Territory a child cannot be put in ‘separation’ for more than 12 hours without the chief executive’s approval, and never for more than 72 hours.
The OCC said this breached not only NT laws, but the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which states that solitary confinement should only be used in ‘exceptional circumstances’ and no longer than 22 hours without meaningful human contact.
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Young People found that solitary isolation was considered “cruel, inhuman and degrading — possibly amounting to torture”.
“Isolation of children and young people in detention centres is psychologically damaging and contributes to poor behaviour and the occurrence of serious incidents,” it found.
The OCC also found that YJOs denied the child’s requests for food and medication in an attempt to coerce them to move to B-Block.
This is despite internal policies explicitly stating that: “Young people in Youth Detention Centres are never to be deprived of food as a form of punishment or behaviour management”.
The OCC found that while they were given lunch and a snack on April 9, the child was not provided breakfast or dinner and was denied food when they requested it.
One staff member told the child over intercom: “They say we can’t give you anything”.
“You know the deal. I been told, that’s how it is. We can’t change it if you move to Bravo — I’ll feed you until you’re f**king full,” another staff member said over the intercom.
“Brah I didn’t eat all day … I just want something to eat bro,” the child replied.
“Bro you mob can’t do this forever, you mob can’t keep doing this forever.”
The staff member also told the child that “I’ve got your medication here” but also would not give it unless they agreed to move.
After the second day of solitary isolation, the child expressed their frustration about their lack of medication, and said they were given food on the second day after they started to feel “weak”.
“It is clear from the interview with the team leader, that refusal to provide medication after hours was being used as a strategy to coerce (them) to move blocks,” the OCC said.
After three days alone in a cell, the child was moved to G-Block, rather than Bravo.
During their 84-hours in solitary, the child asked to speak to the OCC or a civil lawyer, but was repeatedly denied that request.
The Deputy Superintendent told the OCC that the situation was considered to be an ‘emergency’ as their refusal to move was deemed a continuation of the riot — although did not provide evidence for this.
The OCC rejected that a child refusing to comply with a direction could be considered an “emergency”.
The Superintendent also said the child “had the power” and if they had moved they would be “subject to all the normal entitlements”.
The report also found there was inconsistent recording from the ‘block journals’, with YJOs alleging that the child had a weapon and kicked them, and they provided them with breakfast and medication — despite CCTV conflicting with these reports.
The OCC said several staff, including the Superintendent, were also unaware of the total length of time the child had been isolated in their cell.
“(This) demonstrates how a lack of oversight of time in cells, together with continually changing staff through blocks creates opportunities for unlawful practices and harm to children, whether intended or not, to occur unchecked,” the report said.
“(This breach was) without notification or awareness of the OCC, CEO or even apparently the Superintendent.”
Following the report’s release, the young Territorian said their time in solitary isolation “really messed with my head”.
“I was growing up and becoming more mature (on the outside), when I was inside, I started getting angry, it affected me and I couldn’t think straight because of what happened.
“It made my anxiety worse. It changed me.”
The child has accused youth detention centres of misleading the public about the conditions inside the children’s prison.
“On their website (they talk) about what kids get access to, the time they are let out of their rooms — it’s not true,” they said,
“There’s usually heaps of lockdowns, kids don’t get out a lot of the time.
“They don’t feel safe, especially the younger ones.”
Ms Musk said it was a community expectation that children in detention would be treated with “respect and dignity and in a manner that fosters their rehabilitation”.
“For the child subject to this investigation, that was not the case,” she said. In response to the interim report the Corrections Department acknowledged that the child may not have been provided with the “minimum requirements”, it added that this was in the wake of the riot which caused substantial damage.
“Our staff are now more acutely aware of their obligations and responsibilities when it comes to provisions of services to young people in detention,” it said.
The OCC said a second investigation was being prepared for the other children in B-Block.
The report said kids in B-Block had reduced time out of their cells and managed under rolling lockdowns, with young people appearing to be “ highly distressed and actively self-harming in the days immediately following the disturbance”.
“Concerns were raised by young people as to limited time out of cells, poor conditions within cells, limited access to phones, visitors, medical treatment and services and basic amenities such as showers and food,” the OCC said.
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Ben Grimes said he was deeply concerned that the recommendations from the OCC’s investigation had not been fully implemented.
“Without fixing existing failures and with rising youth detention numbers, we will continue to see cases like this,” a NAAJA release said.
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Originally published as NT Office of the Children’s Commission reveals child kept in solitary isolation for 84 hours
