Complaints from Ashley Youth Detention Centre detainees to Ombudsman on the rise: Report

Detainees at the notorious Ashley Youth Detention Centre are increasingly contacting the Ombudsman to complain of poor treatment and a lack of education access, a report has found.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre near Westbury in northern Tasmania.

Increasing numbers of detainees at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre are lodging complaints with the Ombudsman over their treatment at the notorious facility.

The Ombudsman Tasmania 2022-23 annual report, released this week, revealed that 95 complaints were lodged relating to the various portfolio areas falling under the banner of the Department for Education, Children and Young People, including Ashley.

Ten of these complaints were fully substantiated.

It is not clear how many of the total complaints were from Ashley detainees.

“The past 12 months have … seen an increase in the number of complaints we have received from residents at Ashley Youth Detention Centre,” the report read.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

“Residents have raised concerns with us about use of force, lockdowns and access to education.”

The Ombudsman, Richard Connock, detailed a complaint his office received last year from an Ashley detainee relating to a “use-of-force incident”.

The complainant was involved in two separate incidents with a youth worker on the same day and the “substantive” complaint concerned the second incident.

“The Ombudsman concluded that the force used to get the complainant back to their room was reasonable to prevent the complainant from hurting youth workers,” the report read.

“It is understood AYDC was in lockdown at the time, and it is acknowledged that the security of the centre may have also been a factor in the need to return the complainant to their room.”

It was determined that the complaint should not be investigated further because Ashley had “had taken steps to improve practice in the areas identified through staff training and an appropriate review of the incident”.

It’s the Ombudsman’s role to investigate the administrative actions of public authorities to ensure that they are lawful and fair.

The authorities that fall under the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction include government departments, councils, the prison service, TasWater, state-owned companies and government business enterprises.

Ombudsman Richard Connock gives evidence at a Legislative Council inquiry into Tasmanian adult imprisonment and youth detention.

The state government committed to close Ashley by September next year but Education, Children and Youth Minister Roger Jaensch has said he believes this time frame is “going to have to be updated”.

The Deloraine detention centre will be replaced by a smaller detention/remand centre in the state’s south; two assisted bail facilities, one in the north or north-west and one in the south; as well as two supported residential facilities, one in the north or north-west and one in the south.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian government’s responses to child sexual abuse in institutional settings found that some children and young people detained at Ashley over the years had “experienced systematic harm and abuse”.

The commissioners recommended the immediate closure of the facility.