An autistic teenage girl detained at Banksia Hill Detention Centre was forced to use underwear stained with menstrual blood and sleep on a mattress covered with “excrement and saliva”, according to a legal document filed in support of a class action against the West Australian government.
The affidavit by lawyer Stewart Levitt alleges the girl was fed meals through a grille and was forced to “earn” her bedding. She felt like she was being “treated like a dog” and responded by sleeping on the concrete floor of her cell and pretending she was a dog, the document states.
Levitt also alleges in the affidavit that the girl had “violent interactions” with youth justice officers when she refused to change into underwear or uniforms that had visible menstrual blood stains.
The now 18-year-old was first incarcerated at the centre in Canning Wale in Perth’s south when she was 13. One of two lead applicants in the class action, she was also subjected to seven months of continuous prolonged solitary confinement while in detention, it is claimed.
The document was filed in the federal court in late 2022 but published online this week due to significant public interest. It alleges the girl would sleep on the bare floor rather than a mattress because it was “dirty with saliva and excrement”.
The affidavit states the young woman was detained at Banksia Hill between May 2018 and March 2020 on six separate occasions – spending 348 days in detention.
The girl suffered “extremely traumatic” restraining, including handcuffing, leg shackles and spit hoods, excessive use of force by youth justice officers and was forcibly detained and strip-searched “many times” during custody, Levitt alleges.
When her parents visited, it is alleged the teenager was handcuffed and placed in ankle shackles, and that the restraints went beyond the requirements set out under state legislation.
The claimant said she found being strip-searched and watched by officers while showering distressing and humiliating.
The affidavit said the use of force and restraints meant she was acting out her distress through self-harm and “non-compliant behaviour”.
“She found the use of force and imposition of restraints on her extremely traumatic and often reacted to these incidents by escalating her non-compliant behaviour and acts of self-harm,” the affidavit states.
The document also alleges the girl was denied her right to education as a result of her solitary confinement.
It claims the state failed to provide sufficient teachers or appropriately resourced education at the centre and when education materials were provided they were at a “kindergarten level” and her competency “declined” as a result.
The class action against the state government is for unspecified compensation for hundreds of current and former detainees. Levitt argues the state breached the human rights of children as young as 10, contravened the Disability Act and was counter to the state’s Young Offender Act with children subjected to unlawful imprisonment, discrimination and battery.
The class action alleges the WA government breached its duty to young detainees by failing to take reasonable steps to protect them from a risk of psychiatric injury and self-harm.
A now 20-year-old man is the second lead plaintiff. He lives with a number of intellectual and mental health disabilities and alleges he suffered prolonged confinement when youth justice officers “made fun” and “taunted” him over his disabilities.
The sworn affidavit alleges the young man was subjected to excessive restraints and the now-banned “folding up” method of restraint while he was detained between March 2014 and April 2020.
The affidavit alleges officers held him face down on the ground with his arms behind his back before bending his legs over towards his buttocks and applying pressure to “hold him down”.
Levitt writes that the young man was given no access to any education during his detention at Banksia Hill.
The affidavit claims the young man was refused visits from his mother and grandmother while he was subjected to confinement as “punishment”.
In November, after mounting pressure, the state government held a crisis summit on Banksia Hill. A review commissioned by the WA government nearly 18 months ago recommended it overhaul the youth facility and move away from “punitive control” to “therapeutic care”.
The WA government on Friday said: “As this matter is before the court it would not be appropriate to comment.”
