BANKSIA HILL DETENTION CENTRE — FOUR CORNERS
REPORT
692. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I refer to findings in the Four
Corners program ''Locking Up Kids'' that suggest that Banksia
Hill Detention Centre has been plagued with dysfunction and riots, with
conditions worsening in the last 12 months, noting that the centre is, at
times, dangerously understaffed, a fact reinforced by findings of the Inspector
of Custodial Services. I also refer to the Premier's assertion on ABC
Perth this morning that it is working incredibly well and that Banksia Hill is
working effectively. Does he stand by those comments?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
Yes, I do. We have employed an
additional 68 staff. Another 19 are undergoing training currently. They are
being rolled out into Banksia Hill as we speak to ensure that it can be managed
effectively. What has happened is this: 95 young people are in detention there.
A lot of them, as I said before, have had very difficult upbringings. They have
had potentially dysfunctional home lives. Some of them have some mental health
issues. In order to go to Banksia Hill, as I will outline to the Leader of the
Opposition again, they have normally been through the justice system on a lot
of occasions. Break and enters, aggravated burglaries, stealing cars and
assaulting other people are the sorts of
offences. Sometimes it is arson and sometimes it is sexual assault; sometimes it
is worse. So they end up in Banksia Hill. Of the cohort of young people
who are there at the moment, 95 or thereabouts have been sentenced to be detained for any period of time. Of those
95, 85 are participating in educational programs, recreational programs,
music programs and welfare and other programs. Roughly 90 per cent are
participating effectively, but 10 have not been. Those 10 have been assaulting
guards. They have assaulted the youth custodial officers scores of times.
Sometimes when they have been released into the recreation areas, they have
assaulted other detainees. Then they have destroyed their cells, so we have had
to find somewhere else for them while we fix their cells, at the minimum. The
only place that is available to us to place them is the so-called unit 18,
which is separate from adult prisoners. They cannot see the adult prisoners. It
is staffed and it provides a range of services similar to those available at
Banksia Hill, but they need to be more carefully managed, because when they are
released from their cells into the yard,
particularly if they are in a group, they may well attack a youth custodial
officer again or try to escape. It needs more careful management. The 85
who are in Banksia are participating in all the programs and it is running
well.
I think that is a statement of the
obvious. I know there is a lot of gnashing of teeth and a lot of people do not
want detention. They do not want detention—full stop. I saw the
journalist say at the start of last night's program that there should
not be detention. I saw her say it at the start. That is the position she
started from. When the program was created,
that is what it said. If someone sexually assaults another person, commits
multiple aggravated burglaries in
which they beat people up in their homes, burns down someone's house or
steals a car and drives it at high speed at police officers, I just do not agree with the idea that there cannot
be a consequence. Members opposite are arguing this over and again. They
need to understand what we are dealing with. When they were in office, they had
a bit more sense about these things. They
moved 70—not 10—into Hakea Prison, which had asbestos. That is
what they did when they were in office. We did not attack them over it,
because the cells were destroyed. What other option did they have? It is
incredible that members opposite take up this argument in this way.
We
are doing our best in a difficult situation. A lot of people out there are very
idealistic, and good on them, but we
have to deal with the actual practicalities of dealing with a group of people
who have caused a lot of disruption and
a lot of pain. I will tell members another example. Danny Hodgson was punched
at Perth train station by a 15-year-old and suffered brain damage.
According to the people I saw on the program last night, that perpetrator
should not be incarcerated. I disagree with that.