Behind the Wire of Juvenile Detention in WA

SARAH DAY

Bomb threats, serious assaults, and reports of increasing incidents of self-harm from inside Western Australia’s only juvenile detention centre have recently uncovered the ugly truth of a neglected and unstable system. Evidence of an overwhelmed facility that is crumbling under the weight of the states influx of young delinquents begs the question; can we trust that our juvenile justice system is performing at a standard that ensures a brighter future for our states most troubled youth? For the sake of not only those who are under the responsibility of our justice system but also the communities that they reintegrate into after their time is served

Banksia Hill Detention Centre

Banksia Hill Detention Centre — it is the only detention facility for offenders between the ages of 10 and 17 years in Western Australia since the closure of Rangeview Detention Centre in 2012. In an alarming series of incidents we have recently seen the lid thrust wide open on Western Australia’s juvenile detention system revealing the questionable tactics — such as laser-sighted beanbag shotguns, flash-bang grenades and pepper spray — used to control inmates and quash internal riots. The report conducted by WA’s chief inspector of prisons Neil Morgan exposed the mounting assaults on staff and incidents of self-harm within the walls of our sole facility for juvenile detention.

Banksia Hill Detention Centre sits isolated on an uneven square of land carved into the surrounding native scrub. On the corner of Warton and Nicholson road in Canning Vale, its closest neighbouring facility is Hakea Prison. Boys and girls who find themselves as occupants of this facility are there for one of four reasons.

• They are awaiting sentencing after conviction
• They have been denied bail and are awaiting their court case
• They have been arrested and are waiting for their initial Court appearance
• They have been sentenced for a period of detention.

Juvenile detainees are in fact often victims themselves of a broad range of traumas

from family violence, emotional or physical abuse to other forms of neglect. Cases of systematic abuse of drugs and participation in criminal activity are often the direct result of a knock on effect from dysfunction and lack of structure in their earliest stages of life.

The challenge facing Banksia Hill currently is how to not only help these children overcome their offending behaviour, but also to identify methods to prevent the possibility of re-offending in the future. As Western Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Colin Pettit stated:

“It is essential young people in the justice system have regular contact with professional adults they can relate to and trust, and these staff must be adequately trained and supported to manage the often difficult and challenging behaviours presented to them.”

Falling morale amongst staff members at Banksia Hill as a result of increasing cases of assault from inmates and the rise in attempted suicide from inmates presents a considerable hurdle in their ability to provide adequate services to the occupants of the detention centre. Whether it is enough to simply rehabilitate young people in juvenile detention is the question, when often they are just released back into these damaging environments once their time is up.

This is just one of the many major hurdles faced by Kylie Bettink a youth custodial officer at Banksia Hill, as she states “We can do a hell of a job on the inside rehabilitating them—but it’s almost like it doesn’t make a difference as soon as they step out the door,”

Indigenous youth — Why they’re the most at-risk of re-offending

Despite forming less than 3% of Australia’s national population, Indigenous children account for more than half of the occupants in our nations juvenile detention centre’s and are 26 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-indigenous children.

The alarming rate at which young indigenous people are being arrested rather than cautioned plays a heavy hand in attesting to why they obtain a more substantial criminal record from a young age. Possession of a previous criminal record in the face of further offences down the track then sky rockets their chances at being incarcerated. Racial bias in the early criminal justice process exercised by police officers is an intolerable contributing factor to the overrepresentation of indigenous youth’s in juvenile detention centres. However this cannot take the brunt of the reasoning behind why they are more likely to re-offend after their initial conviction.

Social and economic conditions are extremely influential factors that contribute to the likelihood of re-offending accompanied by a lack in resources for diversionary alternatives in rural areas “When they’re quite bad, or out of control their community often doesn’t want them anymore. When they’re released they don’t actually have anywhere to go so the chances of them coming back are very high,” explains Bettink.

Recidivism in WA’s juvenile offenders

‘Like a revolving door,’

Kylie Bettink - Youth Custodial Officer at Banksia Hill

Today, recidivism — the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend — measures particularly high in Western Australia especially in young people and Aboriginal people. The effects of repeat offender’s impacts the entire justice system heightening the strain on overcrowding and costs within the prison system. A solution to the internal plight of Banksia Hill revealed in the sobering report by the Inspector of Custodial Services is one that needs immediate attention and extensive funding from the current government. The unsustainable situation facing the detention centre has brought the spotlight down on a number of troubling pitfalls in the system namely the process of reintroducing young offenders back into the community.

It costs approximately $360,000 per year to keep just one child in custody at Banksia Hill Detention Centre and with the highest juvenile detention rates in Australia, it is vital to ensure that once offenders have done their time that they have the support and structure in life outside of Banksia’s walls to avoid falling back into the same anti-social behaviour. The barriers that face reintegration into society as functional members of the community come down to family and living arrangements, value and access to education and schooling, peer group influences and employment opportunities.

There’s an enduring despair on both sides of the fence with overwhelmed officers feeling helpless to the mountainous task that they’re faced with “We’re the only juvenile facility in the whole of WA so we actually get the regional kids as well. Sometimes they can get flown down for just a couple of nights then they’re back up for court it’s just crazy for them. Most of those boys — they call themselves “the bush boys” — most of them offend literally just to be able to eat sometimes,” says Bettink.

Addressing the problem

After the closure of Rangeview juvenile remand centre, Banksia Hill has become the one-stop shop for young offenders within Western Australia. Adolescence is a turbulent time in the best of circumstances. Young people who are in the midst of the developmental transition between childhood and adulthood experiencing emotional, physical and cognitive upheaval. In the face of the additional disturbance of offensive behaviour, complexities of individual needs must be addressed specifically rather than bundled in together. Overcrowding and the jumble of complex cases of juvenile offences means that officers within the facility are unable to provide the individual care to sustainably rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders into functioning members of the outer community. There is a desperate need for more support for indigenous youths in rural communities along with diversionary structures that present them with alternative opportunities outside of criminal activities.

Chief inspector Neil Morgan has advised that the closure of Banksia Hill is an appropriate response for the government, as the facility seems unable to provide its basic functioning service. Alternatively he has proposed that potentially turning Banksia Hill into a female prison or drug rehabilitation facility while investing serious money into developing a number of additional specialised detention centres for juvenile offenders could be a step toward a sustainable juvenile detention system for WA.