Guard shortage led to boys jail chaos

A royal commission has heard boys at Perth’s juvenile detention centre acted up after chronic staff shortages led guards to lock them in cells for up to 23 hours a day.

The solitary confinement cell at Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre in Perth.

The violent, defiant behaviour of children at Perth’s juvenile detention centre was cited as why they were moved to a maximum security men’s jail but a royal commission has heard the boys acted up after chronic staff shortages led guards to lock them in cells for up to 23 hours a day.

Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre was in chaos before the McGowan government announced 17 child inmates would be sent to adult jail Casuarina Prison on July 20. The centre requires 67 guards to function optimally but on any given day, only 35-40 guards were at work.

On Thursday, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability heard lockdowns made the centre more manageable on a skeleton staff.

There was also evidence continuing lockdowns became necessary for safety reasons as children walked on the tops of fences and assaulted guards.

The royal commission examined the case of a 15-year-old boy with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and developmental delays who was locked alone in a glass cell at Banksia Hill on Christmas Day, 2021.

He was later among juveniles sent to the adult jail because of “behavioural issues”.

At Banksia Hill, he was put in the special handling unit - isolation - for hitting a female guard. His attacks on guards became more extreme as his lockdown dragged on.

He spat at guards and flung urine and faeces at them during a total of 79 days in isolation.

On 34 of those days, he was permitted to exercise for about an hour in 20m-long cage. On 33 of the days – including from December 24 to 28, 2021 – he did not get to leave his cell.

The WA Supreme Court has since ruled his treatment, and the lengthy lockdowns of other juveniles, was illegal.

Adam Tomison, the director-general of WA’s Justice Department, told the commission on Thursday he accepted the Inspector of Custodial Services’ description of lockdowns at Bank­sia Hill as cruel, inhuman or degrading. Dr Tomison said while the lockdowns were not acceptable, they were not intended as punishment.

He said at the time of widespread lockdowns, a cohort of boys had learned to pull apart their cells and escape and they taught this skill to other boys.

The children’s jail was in “a state of emergency” from multiple critical incidents each day.