The WA government has been warned it risks being found in contempt of court for continuing to house juvenile detainees in an adult prison, with a senior Perth judge describing what was happening as "barbaric", "cruel" and "a form of child abuse".
The President of the Children's Court, Hylton Quail, made his comments while sentencing two teenagers to non-custodial sentences for a series of burglaries and robberies committed between June and August this year.
The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were being held in Unit 18 of Casuarina adult prison, which in July was set up as "a short term facility" to house a small cohort of teenagers because of what authorities called their extreme behaviour inside the Banksia Hill juvenile detention centre.
This included detainees threatening and assaulting staff and damaging cells to such an extent that many were left unusable.
Three months on, and the unit is still being used to house juvenile detainees, with the court hearing today the 16-year-old had been transferred there from Banksia Hill in early September, while the 17-year-old had been at Casuarina for about 10 days.
Casuarina detainment 'form of child abuse': Judge
The court heard that while in Banksia Hill, the two boys had been subjected to repeated lockdowns, which Judge Quail noted earlier this year had been found by a Supreme Court judge to be unlawful, because it left young people locked in their cells on their own for long periods.
He said those "unlawful lockdowns" had continued in Unit 18, which was in addition to the facility being unsuitable to house juvenile detainees, who the court heard were often shackled when they were taken out of their cells and escorted by up to seven guards.
"There is no access to education, recreation, visits … there is very little human interaction, the cells are bare, with a mattress on the floor … the detainees are starved of stimulation," Judge Quail said,
"Unit 18 is not a suitable place to detain young people. The conditions are cruel and arbitrarily punishing and clearly have no rehabilitative effect."
"The depravation and solitary confinement is a form of child abuse inflicted on vulnerable and severely damaged children by the executive and the government, which causes short term and long term damage."
Public may be 'justifiably aggrieved' by sentences
Judge Quail warned that by continuing to use Unit 18 and lockdowns, the government was ignoring the Supreme Court judgement earlier this year, as well as repeated orders made in the Children's Court, and therefore risked being found in contempt of court.
In imposing non-custodial sentences on the two teenagers before him, Judge Quail noted the community might well be "justifiably aggrieved" that the penalties being handed out by the court at the moment were not seen as proportionate to the crimes being committed.
However he said the "cure for the error" and "the barbaric treatment of children" rested solely with the department and the government.
Assaults down at Banksia Hill
The state government defended the continued detention of the teenagers, and said it had led to a "significant reduction" in trouble at Banksia Hill.
"Seventeen of the most difficult cohort of young people with complex needs were moved from Banksia Hill to Unit 18 on the 20 July 2022," a spokesperson said.
"The standalone building at Casuarina Prison has provided an opportunity to address the challenges of this cohort of young people.
"Since the move, there has been a significant reduction of incidents at Banksia Hill, which has allowed the other detainees to return to normal education and recreational routines.
"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 amount of times youth offenders have assaulted Banksia Hill staff has also decreased by 85 per cent."
