The WA Government Is Sending 20 Teenagers To A Maximum Security Adult Prison Site

The WA Government has announced it is shifting 20 boys from a youth detention centre into a maximum security adult prison.

The group — with the youngest being only 14 — will be temporarily moved to a standalone unit separate from the adult population at Casuarina Prison from Banksia Hill in Canning Vale after “significant damage” and “persistent disruption” to 100 of the 260 cells at the latter site.

“The short-term youth detention centre will provide a safe environment for the 20 young men while we restore Banksia Hill to a safe working environment for staff and detainees, and complete the necessary infrastructure works,” said Corrective Services Commissioner Mike Reynolds in a statement on Tuesday.

If you wanna raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years old does that make them go from children to young people or are they still children?

Because the WA government see’s 14 year old Aboriginal kids as young men not children.

— Banok Rind (@banoky) July 5, 2022

“Banksia Hill is a youth detention facility and it’s built in a different manner to an adult male prison. So, obviously, the cells at the male prison are much more secure,” said Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston.

However, advocates have pointed out the conditions the offenders have been placed in play a significant role in their behaviour, calling for rehabilitation and early intervention instead of punitive measures.

“To describe these children as ‘difficult’ completely misses the point — no child should be in prison in the first place, let alone sent to a maximum security adult prison,” said Greens Senator Dorinda Cox.

“These children are being traumatised as we speak — keeping them in these settings is akin to torture,” she said.

“The Western Australian Government has a duty of care to these children, instead, they’re being traumatised in ways that will deeply harm them for the rest of their lives.”

It is estimated that 70 percent of kids detained in Banksia Hall are Aboriginal, according to the National Indigenous Times.

In February, staff at Banksia Hill noted an “extreme increase” in the level of self-harm and suicidal ideation among detainees — the same month it was revealed an Indigenous boy had been kept in solitary confinement for nearly 80 days.

“Change the Record is appalled by the decision of the WA government to send First Nations children to a maximum security adult prison instead of addressing the ‘cruel, inhumane, and degrading’ treatment of children in Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre,” said the First Nations-led justice coalition on Wednesday.

“It is these conditions, and government’s failure to rectify them, that has driven an alarming spike in the number of children attempting suicide and self-harm in that facility over the last two years.”

“Children do not belong in … maximum security adult prisons, and they should not be punished for the failures of adults to keep them safe,” said Change the Record.

Junkee reached out to the Department of Justice to confirm claims that all 20 boys were Indigenous.