500 ex-Banksia Hill youth detainees sue Western Australia

Juvenile detainees at WA’s controversial Banksia Hill detention facility were assaulted, unlawfully restrained and denied access to rehabilitation and education, according to a court writ.

The solitary confinement cell at WA’s Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre.

Juvenile detainees at Western Australia’s controversial Banksia Hill detention facility were assaulted, unlawfully restrained and denied access to rehabilitation and education, according to a writ filed in a class action against the WA government.

Court documents filed by Sydney law firm Levitt Robinson and released by the Federal Court on Thursday detail complaints by two former detainees who say they were discriminated against during their time in Banksia Hill.

Levitt Robinson has brought the class action on behalf of more than 500 current and former Banksia Hill detainees and is seeking unspecified damages.

The legal filings detail the experiences of former detainees Alexandra Walters and Joel Vida.

Walters, now 18, spent almost a year in Banksia Hill over six different occasions between May 2018 and March 2020. She was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2012.

According to an affidavit filed by Levitt Robinson senior partner Stewart Levitt, Walters was confined alone in a cell for approximately 23 hours a day for extended periods in Banksia Hill.

The affidavit said Walters was forced to wear Banksia Hill-issued underwear and outer garments bearing visible menstrual stains from use by other detainees, and slept on the bare floor rather than a mattress that was dirty with saliva and excrement. It said exposure to a dirty, soiled or stained environment was a trigger for her severe ASD and led her to engage in “acting-out behaviour”.

Walters was handcuffed and her legs shackled when she was allowed out of her cell to see her parents when they visited, and on several occasions was denied visits from her parents as a punishment. She was also frequently fed through a grille in the door and was forced to earn her bedding.

“She felt that she was being treated like a dog and responded to this by sleeping on the concrete floor and pretending that she was a dog,” the complaint said.

The writ says she was frequently subjected to strip searches and watched by officers while in the shower, experiences she found “distressing and humiliating”, and forcibly held down on the ground and had her head banged against the wall by multiple officers.

Walters was also restrained “many times” by instruments such as handcuffs, leg shackles and spit hoods. “She found the use of force and imposition of restraints on her extremely traumatic and often reacted to these incidents by escalating her non-compliant behaviour and acts of self-harm,” the writ said.

Vida, now 20, was described as an Indigenous man with an intellectual disability and mental health disabilities manifesting as mania with psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia.

He served around 55 days in Banksia Hill between 2014 and 2020, during which time, the affidavit says, he was subjected to excessive use of force including the use of “folding up”, a technique since abandoned in the juvenile detention system.

He was given no access to education, the affidavit says, and was teased by officers.

The class action is seeking a declaration that the juveniles were unlawfully discriminated against because of their disabilities, and seeking compensation for loss and damage.

Banksia Hill has been under increased scrutiny in recent years following findings that the vast majority of juveniles suffered from some form of brain impairment.

On Thursday, international group Human Rights Watch singled out WA’s prison system as remaining “damaging and at times deadly” for people with disabilities.

The office of WA Correctional Services Minister Bill Johnston said it would not be appropriate to comment given the matter was before the court.