Crisis inside our juvenile detention centres as inmates run riot
Conditions inside the state’s juvenile justice centres are at such a crisis point that corrections officers fear it is only a matter of time before someone dies. The Sunday Telegraph reveals how the young offenders have taken control of the centres.
NSW
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A teenager in detention called a complaints hotline about being served “burnt toast” while another dialled to complain about having to eat brown — rather than white — bread.
Two detainees regarded as “heroes” by their peers have assaulted so many staff, they are transferred between the centres every few weeks.
Up to eight detainees at one centre who entered with no religious affiliations now demand officers wake them at 4am so they can pray.
The scenarios may appear farcical, but the State’s juvenile justice officers claimed at a crisis meeting in Sydney this week that this was the new reality in the NSW’s troubled Juvenile Justice system — a government department where they had “lost control”.
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Their testimonials are backed by a damning state government report released on Friday, which found officers were resorting to confinement as a disciplinary measure.
The number of detainees has dropped from more than 300 four years ago to 266, but officers say those who now enter the system are the “worst of the worst”, including six on terror charges.
Only last week officers were injured when a group of detainees at Orana Juvenile Justice Centre at Dubbo went on a rampage, trashing a classroom, while an 18-year-old sent to a mental health facility stands accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in the same unit.
The Public Service Association (PSA), claims physical injuries officers have endured in the past year include an eye socket fracture, broken leg, broken teeth, bites and possible infections from being spat on.
Declaring the situation a crisis, the officers are pleading with the NSW government to set up a “therapeutic” unit for high risk offenders where they could be temporarily removed from the general population to an environment where they could receive intensive rehabilitation.
The threat of being removed from their friends would deter bad behaviour, in what is presently dubbed “a finishing school for criminals”, one officer said.
The move would also reduce the need to use isolation — one of the few disciplinary tools available to officers — and a method the state government now wants to phase out.
“We have lost control,” one officer said.
“The kids control the centres now, and they know it. If nothing changes there will be a death. An officer or a kid.”
While the state government has been fighting against a unit, its own report into disciplinary methods used by juvenile justice officers released late Friday afternoon suggested how one could work.
“It would also require all staff, irrespective of roles, to work with the young people toward reducing aggression and violence,” it said.
Union boss Stewart Little said the unit would not operate like the defunct Chisholm wing of the Cobham Juvenile Justice Centre, which had been set up by the government without union or staff consultation and was mired in controversy about its treatment of detainees.
“They would still go to school, they would still have sport and watch television, but they would be taken out of the general population where they are leading the others astray,” he said.
There are six Juvenile Justice Centres in NSW staffed by about 900 officers and the overwhelming majority of detainees are male, with less than 10 per cent female.
Figures from the NSW Ombudsman show there were 246 complaints by detainees this financial year, mostly about “daily routine”, “officer misconduct” and “food and diet”.
A Juvenile Justice NSW spokesman said officers were authorised to use restraints such as handcuffs and ankle cuffs, body armour, helmets and shields and physical force when required.
The PSA had so far been unable to provide evidence that a special unit would reduce the risk of violence, the spokesman said.
The debate comes amid demands by the State opposition for NSW Corrections Minister David Elliott to stand aside for allegedly lying to parliament by claiming detainees were never kept in isolation.
Originally published as Crisis inside our juvenile detention centres as inmates run riot