YOUTH DETENTION — BANKSIA HILL DETENTION CENTRE
AND CASUARINA PRISON
958. Hon Dr BRAD PETTITT to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Corrective Services:
I refer to the recent Supreme Court
decision in VYZ by Next Friend XYZ v Chief Executive Officer of the Department
of Justice (2022) WASC 274 on 25 August 2022, declaring the lockdown of the
14-year-old applicant unlawful, and recent media that reports Judge Quail was
informed those lockdowns would continue for the rest of the year and most
likely for the first quarter of 2023.
(1) Since the
Supreme Court decision, what changes has the Department of Justice made to the
management of young people in youth detention, particularly with regard to
lockdowns?
(2) Given that
the review into the Young Offenders Act 1994 is expected to take 12 months,
what interim changes does the department plan to implement and on what time
line will these changes occur?
(3) On how many
occasions since the 25 August 2022 has a young person detained at Banksia Hill
Detention Centre and unit 18 of Casuarina Prison respectively been kept in a cell
for more than 20 hours?
(4) What are the
average out-of-cell hours for detainees at Banksia Hill Detention Centre and
unit 18 respectively in August 2022, September 2022, October 2022 and to date?
The PRESIDENT: Before I give the call to the
parliamentary secretary, I will point out that that question was not only long
on words, but is seeking an inordinate amount of information. I therefore
caution the parliamentary secretary that if you are able to reply, that your
reply may also be concise as the question should be.
Hon
MATTHEW SWINBOURN replied:
Thank you, President. I thank the
member for some notice of the question. The answer will be very concise. The
Minister for Corrective Services advises that an answer to this question is
unable to be prepared in the limited time available today. The minister will
seek to provide an answer on 20 October 2022.