Girls, young leaving WA detention facility

WA's only juvenile detention centre will be "changed profoundly" and children aged under 14 will not be housed there after a damning report into the facility.

Girls and children under the age of 14 will be moved out of Western Australia's only juvenile detention centre, which will be "changed profoundly" following a damning report into the facility.

Inspector of Custodial Services Neil Morgan this month revealed unprecedented levels of self-harm and other problems at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, and recommended the state government consider repurposing the facility and opening smaller ones.

Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan on Friday criticised the previous government's decision to close Rangeview Juvenile Remand Centre in 2012 but said there was no "magic wand" to solve detention problems.

"Banksia Hill will be changed profoundly," he told ABC radio.

"It has been changed from the time the last riot took place on May 4 and 5."

Mr Logan said the six girls currently at Banksia Hill should not be there, adding he wanted them moved into secure housing and more appropriate rehabilitative care.

He also wants children under the age of 14 moved out.

"They shouldn't be in that facility ... I know they have done some serious, serious issues," he said.

"There are a number of options I've put forward ... for example, I'm advised that at the back of the Children's Court there is accommodation there for a significant number of people.

"Another is a secure environment in a house."

Mr Logan said he was hoping to relocate the children by the end of the year.

The minister also said the state government was considering detaining juvenile offenders in their local region, such as the Pilbara and Kimberley.

"We've had early discussions and just brief discussions with not-for-profit groups about how we can actually get those young people back on country, into jobs and into training that would lead for them to be employed."

Mr Logan described the background of one of the main perpetrators of the May riot as "shocking".

"What he has experienced is akin to what young children have experienced in Iraq and Syria."

The report noted there were five attempted suicides and 191 cases of self-harm last year at Banksia Hill, flash bombs were used to control violent detainees, restraints were increasingly used and sugary food had been restricted as a behaviour management technique.

Allegations of CCTV footage being wiped and the falsification of documents had been referred to the Corruption and Crime Commission, Mr Logan said.


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Source: AAP



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