Don Dale management completely failed to address issues inside the juvenile detention centre and allowed a “boys’ club mentality” to develop, the head of the professional standards unit has told the royal commission.
David Ferguson said most incidents he examined in a 2014 review, including the teargassing, assaults and attempted escapes, were “probably entirely preventable”.
In the aftermath of the August 2014 incident and an escape attempt from a temporary juvenile facility at the adult prison a month later, Ferguson was asked by former corrections commissioner Ken Middlebrook to investigate assaults and escapes at Don Dale.
Ferguson’s review concluded that while the situation had developed over a number of years, it was the responsibility of current management to fix it and no real effort had been made to enact positive change.
There was “a fundamental lack of awareness of staffing problems … and the complete failure of centre management to address or attempt to address the issues”.
“It should be obvious to anyone that if you treat youth like animals by not communicating, threatening, belittling them, withholding food and other entitlements, they will react in an aggressive way,” he wrote.
“Most of these incidents were most probably entirely preventable with the use of appropriate communication and open interaction with the detainees, combined with a regular routine to keep them occupied.”
By the time of his investigation there were no longer any enforced programs and detainees no longer did any chores, including making their own beds or cleaning cells.
Ferguson said detainees also complained about being lied to by officers.
“You can’t lie to people and expect them to behave or respond positively,” he told the commission.
Ferguson found detainee claims that their treatment by staff “inspired them to wreck the cells” were supported by CCTV footage of officers throwing fruit at detainees, and of a youth justice officer attempting to cover up a camera before threatening to bash a detainee in his cell.
Ferguson, a former youth worker and superintendent in juvenile justice, said there was an issue with a “boys’ club mentality and attitude” among some male officers at Don Dale, and there were complaints about a core group referred to as “Jimmy’s boys” who were involved in martial arts fighting. “Jimmy” referred to the former deputy general manager, James Sizeland.
“Jimmy’s boys” brought phones to work, ignored instruction, would “corrupt new staff” and were routinely late or leaving early, Ferguson was told during his investigation. They also became abusive if they were criticised by management.
He said information “comes to hand occasionally” that some staff were allegedly regular drug users or dealers.
Ferguson noted reports that “staff who have complaints about the behaviours of other staff no longer bother to complain … as nothing is ever done”.
“Staff say here there is no point in complaining to the assistant [general managers] as Jimmy [Sizeland] protects his boys.”
He said staff felt the whole place was “falling apart” with no direction, procedures, support or responses to complaints.
Sizeland is expected to appear before the commission next week.
Ferguson’s report also noted allegations that detainees who had been transferred to maximum security in the adult prison were not given breakfast until after 11am and only at the insistence of prison staff. They were not released from cells for exercise, and youth justice management did not check on the detainees’ welfare for at least two days, he said.
The royal commission also heard further detail on inadequate training, including the revelations that at the time of a professional standards unit audit, 21 of 71 staff members were found to have no qualifications in the minimal assault response training, and only 27 had first aid.
Just 13 had advanced resuscitation training and 33 were recorded as ever having completed suicide intervention training.
In two professional standards unit audits of “de-escalation room” incidents, there was no evidence of any attempt to reintegrate the detainee once they no longer posed a threat, but instead remained separated for the maximum 24 hours.
A 2016 review of use of force incidents found a lack of compliance in a number of areas.
