The former head of Western Australia's Children's Court has called for a Royal Commission into the state's juvenile justice system as the fallout over the treatment of youth offenders in the state reaches boiling point.
The call comes in response to a Four Corners investigation, revealing confronting footage of the treatment of a child at Banksia Hill detention centre.
On the same day, WA's current Children's Court president – Hylton Quail – again condemned the treatment of juvenile detainees at Banksia Hill.
His comments were made while sentencing a different teenager who had spent almost 64 per cent of his last stint in custody in unlawful solitary confinement, much of which was spent at the infamous unit 18 at WA's adult maximum security jail.
The boy sentenced on Monday is not the same boy Four Corners is reporting on.
Judge Quail spent almost one hour delivering his sentencing remarks for the teenager, who appeared before the court on numerous charges, including two counts of aggravated home burglary and one count of aggravated robbery.
The teenager, a repeat offender, was sentenced to 14 months which Judge Quail said he had already served half of, making him eligible for release.
Judge Quail said the offences would normally demand a significantly greater sentence but added these were not ordinary circumstances – with the teenager having spent 174 of his most recent 273 days in custody in unlawful solitary confinement, affording him no rehabilitation whatsoever.
"The ball is in your court," Judge Quail told the teenager.
"It's entirely up to you."
Throughout his remarks, it was revealed that the teenager had allegedly been involved in causing damage to the facilities of Banksia Hill earlier this year.
Judge Quail said the teenager had been "demonised" by corrective services and the executive government as being part of a cohort of difficult and destructive detainees.
"That characterisation of [the teenager] is not accurate," he said, going on to state the teenager's actions had been all but inevitable.
Judge Quail went on to explain the "cruel and harsh conditions" the teenager had been subjected to in having to spend frequent and often consecutive days of more than 20 hours locked up in his cell.
Earlier this year, Judge Quail noted the lockdowns, which he said have in the past often been due to staff shortages, had been found by a Supreme Court judge to be unlawful.
Damage to Banksia Hill ultimately led the government to move a group of offenders to an isolated unit at Casuarina Prison, a maximum-security adult facility.
Growing chorus for inquiry into WA juvenile justice
Former Children's Court president, Denis Reynolds, described the current situation as "child abuse" and believed a royal commission was needed.
"The royal commission, really, is the only authority that I think can get to the truth of it," he said.
Mr Reynolds said he was "disturbed" by the way some detainees at Banksia Hill were being treated, as shown in footage released by the ABC's Four Corners.
"I'm hoping that the visual for the people in the community, to see how low we've got, will be a catalyst for change."
"Whilst I didn't know it was happening it didn't surprise me that we'd stoop that low.
"It should be banned, and secondly by recognising the needs of the children we wouldn't be needing to do it in the first place."
Mr Reynolds reiterated calls for Banksia Hill to close, and added that a "regime and cultural change" was needed in the short term.
"If a group of people who know the space got together, went into Banksia, got the children up and about during the day, got them playing sports … I think this can be turned around relatively quickly," he said.
"Get them engaged in musical activities, bringing in the family so there can be social interaction, bring in the mental health services."
Concerns of potential deaths in custody: Inspector
Earlier, WA's Inspector of Custodial Services Eamon Ryan joined the raft of voices calling for a fundamental rethink of juvenile justice in the state, saying it needed to move away from the current structure of having a single facility at Banksia Hill.
"There needs to be a commitment, a longer-term commitment, to finding a solution, whether that is two or three smaller facilities," he said.
"I'm very concerned that the most horrendous thing possible could happen, and that would be a death in custody."
"I don't think anybody would say now that if you're starting from scratch that you would build one facility to house young people from 10 to 18, from all across the state, whether they be on remand, under arrest or sentenced."
He said WA's juvenile justice system remained too focused on security, and needed to take on a more "trauma-informed" model of care.
Mr Ryan described the ABC's Four Corners footage as "distressing", but acknowledged it only showed a small part of broader interactions.
He said a closer look at the use of those techniques was "probably worthwhile".
"Any restraint of the young person by a number of adults is cause for concern," he said.
"So my hope would be that they would be used absolutely sparingly, and that they are best practice if that is indeed the case."
Calls to shut down Unit 18 continue to grow
Known as Unit 18, the decision to move — and now keep — juvenile detainees in the facility, has seen a growing backlash among advocates and experts.
Judge Quail described what it was like in Unit 18, based upon reports and his inspections, his most recent this past weekend.
He said inmates were confined to their cells except for the brief periods they were allowed into the central part of the unit.
Judge Quail said there were no screens separating the shower or toilet from the rest of the cell, meaning water would run throughout the cell.
He said detainees were required to eat all their meals in their cells with no recreation available other than a ping pong table in the central area, with the basketball court currently closed.
A court-ordered psychological report for the teenage boy being sentenced on Monday raised a number of issues with the facilities within Unit 18.
Judge Quail said the doctor who conducted the teenager's report had described the central area as a space where every service was attempted to be delivered as there was nowhere else.
The doctor went on to describe that the presence of guards within the space afforded no privacy, with requests to access a private space denied due to security issues.
According to the report, the distinct power imbalance of custodial staff being able to hear what was being discussed impacted the ability for any progress.
Judge Quail noted this was the same when it came to the teenager accessing education, which had been deemed to be crucial to the boy's ability to rehabilitate.
Minister defends Unit 18
Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston reiterated that detention was the last resort for young offenders, with most serving community orders to continue with their lives.
"It is not easy to get into Banksia Hill and most detainees are not first-time offenders," he said,
"For those detainees and staff at Banksia Hill, I've always acknowledged that last summer was a very difficult period.
He again defended the move of "seventeen of the most difficult and violent cohort of young people" to Unit 18 at Casuarina Prison in July, saying it made for a significant reduction of incidents at Banksia Hill.
"Following the movement of young people to Unit 18 there was a 27 per cent decrease in critical incidents and 72 per cent decrease in non-critical incidents at Banksia Hill in August.
"The number of times youth offenders have assaulted Banksia Hill staff has also decreased by 8 per cent."
He said staffing levels had also been addressed and the department was prioritising upgrades of cells and infrastructure.
"Unit 18 will cease operating as a temporary youth detention centre once these works are completed by 30 June 2023," he said.
Access to education and consistency needed for rehabilitation
Early in his sentencing, Judge Quail turned to the teenager and told him, "I know you don't like to hear about it but I have to talk about your personal circumstances."
The details of the teenager's life were harrowing to hear and included that he had been both a witness and victim of family and domestic violence from a young age as well as having been a victim of sexual abuse.
His early life was described as chaotic, with his father incarcerated and his mother struggling to care for him and his siblings, with them often homeless.
Judge Quail said the teenager had been the subject of nine safety investigations by child protective services, placing him into state care at an early age.
It was soon after this that the teenager was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorder.
He has since been diagnosed with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and determined to have very low general cognition and below-average executive function.
The conclusions from the doctor who diagnosed the teenager with FASD, obtained by the court in 2020 and available to all corrective services staff, had determined the teenager would benefit from a consistent schooling environment.
The doctor had also concluded it was important that those around the teenager understood his outbursts may be a result of feeling unsafe, again pointing to the need for consistency and stability in his life.
Judge Quail said while many of the teenager's teachers had described him as willing to learn and engage, his time in detention had seen him go backward, due to not being provided the hours of education he should.
The court heard the teenager had averaged just 3.3 hours of schooling per week during his last 273 days in detention, which he said amounted to 12 per cent of the minimum standard the state is required to provide.
