Staff member at Banksia Hill youth detention assaulted every second day shock stats show

A staff member was assaulted every second day inside Perth’s juvenile detention centres last year, new figures have revealed. It comes as the Cook Government continue to claim that order had been restored at the notorious Banksia Hill, with the WA Prison Officers Union even claiming the prison system had hit “rock bottom.” Statistics tabled in State Parliament revealed 152 assaults, including four classified as serious, were recorded at Banksia Hill between January and October 31 when 46 youths were in custody. The prison population is 34 times bigger at the adult Casuarina jail — with 1569 inmates on October 31 — but only 58 assaults were recorded there. Inside the controversial Unit 18, a maximum security block for youth inside Casuarina’s perimeter, there were only 11 teenagers detained at midnight on October 31 but 146 assaults were recorded in 10 months — again, one assault every two days. “Youth detention centres house the State’s most challenging, and often violent, young offenders,” Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said. “That is why we’ve introduced new high-tech body-worn cameras that can livestream direct to the WA Police State Operations Command Centre. “When incidents occur, they are referred to WA Police and where appropriate, those responsible are charged with additional offences.” There were 343 full-time staff for 57 detainees across both facilities, a number the WAPOU says is simply not enough. “As we have been saying for the last four years, the Government and Department of Justice have driven the Corrective Services to rock bottom,” WAPOU Secretary Andy Smith said. “No staff, no beds, no safety. Not for prison officers, not for prisoners and not for the community.” Mr Papalia said recruitment and retention had improved and staff-assault statistics were lower than previous years. “The Corrective Services Commissioner and I both regularly meet and engage with the relevant unions and their delegates to hear directly from the workforce,” he said. “Importantly, the Department of Justice is recruiting, training and retaining staff at higher levels than ever before with hundreds of additional YCOs appointed in the 2024 calendar year while attrition is below 2 per cent.” A review of youth custody in November praised “good progress” on reforms but warned “a level of fragility still exists” in Banksia Hill and Unit 18, two years after a New Year’s Eve riot caused almost $30 million worth of damage. “The only people that believe that the Labor Government have got control of youth detention is the minister and the Premier,” shadow corrective services minister Peter Collier said. “It is absolute garbage . . . why would you go into a career when you’re going to get bashed? “The youth custodial officers are the first victims . . . the second thing, of course, is the youths themselves are not rehabilitated so they go back into the community and they reoffend. “The one thing this Government should hang their head in shame on . . . is youth detention, these figures stand as testament to that.” Premier Roger Cook has set a 2026 target date to build a replacement facility and close Unit 18 in the wake of the October 2023 death of Cleveland Dodd, with the cost previously estimated at more than $100m. But the mid-year budget review released in December included only $11.5m extra for a new youth detention facility and $7.9 million in 2025/26 for a crisis care unit at Banksia Hill. “They won’t get it done, they don’t care about this anyway,” Mr Collier claimed. He has vowed the Liberal party would close unit 18 immediately and transfer all detainees back to Banksia Hill, if elected. “I would... I mean, you build a primary school for 600 kids in 12 months, right. You build a high school for 3000 kids in 18 months. Yet it takes over five years to build a facility for 50 kids? That’s because they have zero motivation to do it,” Mr Collier said. A high assault rate was also noted at Melaleuca Women’s Prison, where 92 incidents were recorded at a facility with a prison population of 217. “That’s a direct result of the fact that there are staff shortages in every single prison throughout WA at the moment,” Mr Collier said. Custodial Services Inspector Eamon Ryan issued a scathing report in October, warning that staff shortages were compounding infrastructure limitations at Melaleuca, resulting in “inadequate” services and urged the Government to support plans for “badly needed” improvements. “What we are seeing at Melaleuca mirrors what we see in almost every other adult prison,” he said. “Record-high populations, issues with staff recruitment and retention, unmet demands for key services particularly around mental health, infrastructure limitations and significantly reduced rehabilitation opportunities. “Yet the stresses and pressures in the corrections system remain year after year.” He said significant investment was required and described the status quo of “hoping” for a better outcome as “folly”. “If there is not significant and sustained resourcing of corrective services, then the situation we see in Melaleuca and elsewhere will not change and the prospect of reducing recidivism and incarceration rates is significantly lessened,” he said.