WA’s treatment of children in prison is tantamount to torture, but we are the ones who should be scared?

Ask the state government about human rights violations that involve children locked down for months in prison isolation, without any exercise for days, and the response is “they’re very difficult to manage”.

On Thursday, it was revealed in the Perth Children’s Court that a 15-year-old boy was held on remand in solitary confinement for 79 days, 33 of those without sunlight or fresh air against WA law, due to chronic staffing shortages.

Accommodation quarters in Banksia Hill Detention Centre have changed since this picture was taken.Credit: Michael O’Brien

In damning comments, Perth Children’s Court President Hylton Quail said, “if you want a monster this is how you do it”, and pointed out the responsibility fell to government to better resource and train officers and replace the inadequate infrastructure at Perth’s only juvenile detention centre, Banksia Hill.

When asked to comment, Premier Mark McGowan donned his state defender cape against the evil tyranny clearly wrought by children as young as 10 – almost half of whom are wards of the state, many without warm loving homes, food, education or even, in some cases, shelter.

“A lot of people are in prison for pretty serious crimes and so you’ve got to protect the public and put in place efforts to rehabilitate,” he said.

“Banksia Hill actually has a whole range of rehabilitation programs for children that are out there to try and get kids back on the right track, as well.”

The teenager was a petty burglar, who has been led to commit more vicious stealing offences by much-older adults, which included an aggravated burglary of an 82-year-old man in his car. But left on his own, he broke into a neighbouring woman’s home while making sure she wasn’t there because he didn’t want to scare her.

Why? Because he couldn’t afford new clothes. He also took $5 and cigarettes.

Hardly the stuff of “pretty serious crimes”.

His being caged was exacerbated by the brain damage he suffered from his mother drinking and abusing substances when he was growing as a fetus. He acts compulsively without the ability to remember rules due to his FASD and a diagnosed attention deficit disorder.

He was scared and lashed out “like an animal” every time a 180-centimetre male guard hauled him off to a solitary cell – known as ‘the cage’ – because he also had post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety from a childhood filled with the worst kinds of trauma and abuse.

Furthermore, he held little regard over the value of his life, with staff acutely concerned that he was at risk of suicide on 39 occasions.

But to see him in court, and for the female psychologists who spoke with him regularly, he was a polite, quiet kid who beamed from behind his mask when he was told he would not have to return to Banksia Hill.

Mr McGowan also went on to say “there’s no easy answers”, but according to those who have met and helped those children inside Banksia Hill – unlike politicians – there are plenty of easy answers.

National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project volunteers Gerry Georgatos and Megan Krakouer, and Dr James Fitzpatrick, a paediatrician specialising in FASD and incarcerated youth in WA, agree that improved resourcing for programs addressing causal issues in children caught up in the justice system could dramatically improve outcomes.

There’s a gap in support for children who receive a diagnosis for FASD within the justice system because the report is often not made available to the individual, family or external service providers, Dr Fitzpatrick said.

“This means that while many individuals have been diagnosed with FASD through court-ordered assessments, they may not be case managed through the critical next steps of access to services such as the NDIS, Mental Health services, Alcohol and Other Drug, or employment services,” he said.

“What is needed is a coordinated approach to preparing incarcerated youth for reintegration in the community, and linking individuals to services.”

Mr Georgatos and Ms Krakouer, who spent eight weeks with children in Banksia for the COVID-19 lockdown from March 2020, said they halved the number of incarcerated girls by nurturing them to improve behaviours and advocate for them before the courts.

“These are the most vulnerable children I have ever come across in detention, and I have also worked in international aid,” Mr Georgatos said.

“These vulnerable children need love, one-on-one psychosocial support and salt of the earth approaches – the solution is not more guards keeping the peace by force.”

He said one child was a homeless orphan with seven orphaned siblings, five of those also homeless and four of the five ended up in Banksia. One died by suicide.

“It breaks my heart,” he said.

Incarceration leads to high rates of suicide.

This disproportionately harms the Indigenous population, with 74 per cent of those in Banksia Indigenous, and 70 per cent of juveniles later ending up in adult detention.

Mr Georgatos and Ms Krakouer are behind a class action against Banksia Hill that has already accumulated more than 530 accounts from detainees, families, former staff and other groups. They say their case has been strengthened by the Perth Children’s Court president’s comments.

Mr Georgatos said the last thing children in detention needed was another inquiry, as suggested by Greens senator Dorinda Cox. He said it was a politician’s way of wasting time, while a class action before a civil court would have to be acted upon.

He said the Labor government in 2012, while in opposition, called for improvements at Banksia Hill based on numerous inquiries. Yet, it has not ever acted during its five years of government.

“They’re a pack of hypocrites and should hang their heads in shame,” Mr Georgatos said.

Now perhaps in the spirit of forgiveness, the Premier was asked to comment on a lot of things that Thursday – including death threats to his family and office.

But when children in Banksia Hill get painted as the danger by the Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston, you have to ask yourself if there is a familiar political formula being trotted out.

“The only kids in Banksia Hill are those who have either been convicted of a crime or a magistrate has remanded them in custody,” Mr Johnston said, coupled with “one of the reasons that [staff are] under stress, is you have a difficult cohort to manage, who have been attacking the staff”.

So it’s the children’s fault? Right. And a FASD child with PTSD being locked down for endless days with no exercise in a human rights abuse akin to torture?

“I can tell you I know of a number of kids who have struggled with mental health challenges. And I’ll tell you, this is a story of an actual child in the centre,” Mr Johnston said.

“He was displaying self-harm ideation and behaviour. So he was referred to the mental health services.

“He spent time at the EMU in Bentley, the adult mental health unit in Bentley and was stabilised. And on the day he returned to Banksia Hill, he again exhibited those activities.

“So there is no question that the young offenders who are in detention at Banksia Hill are very difficult to manage.”

Suicide ideation should be an alarm bell, not a problem.

Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au).

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