WA Premier Mark McGowan defends juvenile prison’s treatment of children

WA Premier Mark McGowan has defended the state’s handling of juvenile detainees, revealing that prison guards had been assaulted by young offenders hundreds of times in the past year.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Philip Gostelow

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has defended the state’s handling of juvenile detainees, revealing that prison guards had been assaulted by young offenders hundreds of times in the past year.

Mr McGowan on Tuesday talked down the prospect of a fresh inquiry into the state’s handling of youth offenders, saying he ­believed the Banksia Hill detention facility was “working well”.

There has been increased ­scrutiny of WA’s treatment of child inmates in recent months, with growing calls for the state to abandon a practice of moving the most difficult child prisoners to a unit inside the maximum-security Casuarina adult prison.

The ABC on Monday night screened footage of one young ­detainee being pinned on the ground with his hands and legs ­behind his back.

The practice of “folding”, which has been banned in Queensland, has been linked to an increased risk of death or ­injury.

Mr McGowan said he had been unaware of the techniques used inside Banksia Hill and had asked for authorities to look into alternative methods of restraint.

But he defended the conduct of staff within the facility, noting that there had been 384 assaults against them by detainees in the past year.

“They have to deal with very difficult and dangerous situations and I have a great deal of respect for the job that they do,” he said.

Around 90 per cent of child offenders in the state are not in custody, he said, and of the 95 who are, only 10 of those have been moved to Casuarina’s Unit 18.

Those in Banksia Hill, he said, had committed “scores” of offences including armed robbery and aggravated robbery.

“I’ve heard the argument that there should be no consequences, I don’t agree with that. There has to be a consequence,” he said.

The Premier said one of those detainees featured in recent days had been involved in attacks on fellow prisoners and staff and had been urging other inmates to self-harm. “It’s easy to criticise, but we have to actually have practical ways to deal with this,” he said

“I have to protect the public. People at home don’t want to be broken into. The young people and families in entertainment precincts don’t want to be bashed. People should be able to go about their lives without being bashed, without being attacked.”

WA Opposition Leader Mia Davies described the revelations about Banksia Hill as appalling and called for a parliamentary inquiry into the system.

“It is simply not good enough in a state as wealthy as Western Australia that we have a system in such crisis,” she said.

While Mr McGowan has agreed to meet to discuss the current state of Banksia Hill in the coming days with stakeholders including the Commissioner for Children and Young People, Professor Fiona Stanley, the Telethon Kids Institute and the Corrective Services Inspector, he said he did not believe a parliamentary inquiry was necessary.

However, the president of the WA Children’s Court, Hylton Quail, revealed in February that Banksia Hill was again subjecting children to cruel and inhumane lockdowns.

A decade since the Barnett Liberal government was dragged into a class action for rolling lockdowns that deprived juvenile detainees of school, exercise and fresh air – one boy got bed sores after nine weeks – Mr Quail said it was the McGowan Labor government that was now breaking the law at Banksia Hill.

A two-year study of children detained at Banksia Hill found in 2018 that 89 per cent had at least one form of severe neurodevelopmental impairment, while 36 per cent were found to have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.