The Commission was required to consider whether treatment in youth detention may have breached the law. The Commission has found that many of the uses of force outlined above may have breached the law as is outlined in this report.
Restraints and strip searches The Youth Justice Act permits the use of handcuffs or a similar device to restrain a detainee if the superintendent is of the opinion that an emergency situation exists and a detainee needs to be temporarily restrained to protect that detainee or the safety of another person. The Commission has found that handcuffs were used from time to time internally within detention centres in situations that were not emergencies. Despite directives prohibiting this practice, restraining detainees in this way continued even after this Commission was announced. A direction for this practice to cease was issued only in August this year. Youth justice officers conducted strip searches of detainees on a relatively frequent basis through the relevant period. At the current and former Don Dale Youth Detention Centres for the period between January 2007 and June 2015, a total of 4,898 strip searches were recorded as having been conducted. Of those searches, 29 resulted in contraband being found. At the Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre for the period between November 2008 and August 2016, a total of 1,478 strip searches were recorded as having been conducted. Of those strip searches, 12 resulted in contraband being found. The public’s attention and much evidence was heard in the public hearings about the use of the spit hood, the restraint chair and the application of tear gas on young people while they were confined in isolation cells. These incidents are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings. The use of these devices is symptomatic of a youth justice system in crisis. The Commission has explored how this crisis developed, as outlined further in this report, and has recommended that these devices be prohibited in youth detention centres. The Commission considers that the legislative framework of the Youth Justice Act relating to the use of force and restraint does not adequately protect children in detention. In closed institutions, such as detention centres, it is of paramount importance that the power be clearly defined and circumscribed. The vulnerability of children and young people to physical and psychological control by adults imposes a special responsibility on legislatures, communities and staff within youth detention centres to restrict the permission to resort to force only to situations where it is truly necessary.
Isolation Some of the most disturbing treatment revealed to the Commission and exposed in public hearings was the isolation of children in concrete cells for extended periods of time. The Commission’s investigations found that isolation was used on children and young people excessively and punitively during the latter part of the relevant period. From 2012 to August 2014 at the former Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, young people were confined in isolation cells, primarily in the Behaviour Management Unit (BMU), for up to 23 hours a day, for days and weeks on end. The conditions in the BMU were oppressive: it was small, hot, smelly and had no natural light. Many young people were housed in the BMU as part of a regime of behaviour management known as Page 15 |Executive Summary
Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory