Body cam footage exposes juvenile justice crisis as insiders reveal staff safety fears
EXCLUSIVE leaked video has revealed how frontline staff daily put themselves in danger in confrontations with juvenile offenders, as insiders detail the real toll of working in a system beset by violence and facing a flashpoint time of year.
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THIS is the coal face of Australia’s juvenile justice system where staff members fear for their safety, and on the worst days, their lives.
In NSW alone, 188 staff assaults were officially recorded by the juvenile justice department between 2017-2018, but employees claim the real numbers are much higher, with incidents of injured and psychologically traumatised workers skyrocketing in recent years.
Now with Christmas and the festive season approaching, staff fear the time of year that often brings the highest numbers of assaults, violence and self-harming by detainees, may push an already flailing system to breaking point.
“As we move into the Christmas period, some kids are sitting there waiting on their Christmas Day visits but guess what? Mum and Dad don’t turn up — so it’s always a higher risk period for us,” said Julie Bond, Senior Industrial Officer for the Public Service Association of NSW, the union for public servants working in the justice system.
One recently retired employee, who oversaw operations at various juvenile justice centres across NSW, said sudden violent outbreaks between detainees were a daily occurrence.
In an effort to protect the safety of offenders, staff are forced to break up fights with little notice or opportunity to don protective gear such as stab-proof vests, knee and shoulder pads and face masks.
The result can be severe and lasting physical and psychological injuries.
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With juvenile justice able to house offenders up to the age of 21, some detainees tip the scales at 130kgs, equating to serious physical force.
“A staff member got knocked out cold, that was just a couple of months ago,” said one former employee, referring to an incident at Baxter Juvenile Justice Centre on the NSW Central Coast.
Over the past 18 months, incidents stemming from targeted assaults and detainee violence have included a worker who “lost an eye”, another employee who had their teeth knocked out and others who have undergone surgery for knee reconstructions and broken bones. Less serious injuries include scratches, bruises and sprains.
This is despite a $1 million investment from the NSW Government to implement training in negotiation, de-escalation, protective tactics, restraints and use of force techniques to assist officers in managing detainees.
“I know one staff member he was walking a detainee to confinement and the detainee actually punched him in the face. He had lacerations to the side of his head,” said the former staffer.
“I know after that he had another incident and a detainee spat in his face.”
The risk of serious injury only increases when offenders are armed.
Exclusive photographs of seized contraband show shivs made from rusted metal and nails pulled from the walls, butter-knives sharpened into blades for stabbing, and slingshots fashioned from bent wire and rubber bands.
“They are the best engineers these kids,” said one former officer, adding that in her time on the job she had seen everything from tennis rackets to toothbrushes and combs ingeniously turned into lethal weapons.
Tattoo guns can be made from a pulled apart pen and the deconstructed insides of a Discman, while another photo shows an array of bongs fashioned from plastic pens.
With the drug culture alive and well in juvenile justice, it begs the question as to how the illegal substances are smuggled in, given parents are the predominant visitors approved for young offenders (romantic partners are only given visitation rights in special circumstances).
While spitting may seem on the lower end of the harm scale, the mental distress of being spat on is monumental. In particular, staff worry about the spread of hepatitis and other infectious diseases.
“One staff member had been spat on a couple of times and basically he got spat on one morning shift. He was that traumatised that he just walked in (to the office), he took his overalls off, threw his overalls in the bin and just walked out,” said the juvenile operations officer.
“You have a lot of staff members off on stress leave as well that have been spat at or have been hit and they’ve been affected so much that they haven’t wanted to come back,” he said.
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Of a 320 staff base, the employee said approximately 20 were off on stress leave or compensation during one period earlier this year.
However, according to union representative Julie Bond, the true number of physical and psychologically harmed staff is hard to quantify as staff fear the consequences of reporting.
“There’s a fair proportion of casuals across the state and it’s unfortunately the culture that juvenile justice has bred that you write something up you could also be held under investigation and you could be suspended with, or without, pay. And you could (be) sitting there waiting for six to 12 months before you get investigated,” Bond said.
One theory for increased levels of assault and violence is the dissolution of the Chisholm Behaviour Programme in 2016, used as a management tool for the most dangerous and at risk detainees.
Staff claim no adequate program has been implemented in its place and offenders with the most severe behavioural problems are mixed with the mainstream prison population.
“Detainees who display behaviours that present a risk to themselves or others are placed on a stringent management regimen (a Detainee Risk Management Plan),” countered a spokesperson form Juvenile Justice NSW.
Despite this, rates of self-harm have increased for juvenile justice detainees in NSW in the past five years.
This is consistent with national data from across Australia, as well as the UK and the USA, which shows that mental illness, self-harm and suicide rates are on the rise across all cohorts — particularly in young people.
NSW Department of Health data shows self-harm hospitalisations of people between 15 and 24 years old have increased by more than 50 per cent over the past eight to 10 years.
“In 2017-18 there were 359 self-harm incidents involving 100 detainees — it should be noted that of these incidents, half were attributable to 12 individuals,” said a spokesperson from Juvenile Justice NSW.
“When a detainee is identified as being at immediate risk of self-harm or suicide, five minute checks and one-to-one supervision can be deployed along with negotiation, motivational interventions and the removal of clothing and bedding if necessary.”
But according to the justice officers interviewed, self-harm has become a tactic detainees are using to their advantage to manipulate staff and create organisational havoc.
“Self-harming or alleged self-harming has gone through the roof,” said the officer.
“They might say, ‘I want a phone call and if I don’t get a phone call I’m going to self-harm’. And if a staff member says, ‘Well, you’re not entitled to a phone call just yet, he’ll go: well I’ve swallowed something.’”
Policy is to immediately escort the offender to hospital, usually with two or three staff members, where they are X-rayed and assessed.
In some instances, the juvenile has swallowed a battery or a piece of wire; other times, they are in perfect health but revelling in the attention and difficulties they have caused for staff.
“It’s got that out of hand, you’ve got kids going down to the hospital every couple of days,” said the officer.
“In the end, one of the doctors actually wrote a letter to our Justice Health (department) saying, this is getting out of hand.
“It’s just gone rife. So kids are running the show.”
Originally published as Body cam footage exposes juvenile justice crisis as insiders reveal staff safety fears
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