Repairs and upgrades to Perth's riot-hit Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre are expected to cost millions of dollars, the Western Australia's prisons inspector says.
After handing down a scathing report about the causes of the January rampage - which required teen offenders to be moved to the nearby Hakea adult prison and caused some $400,000 damage - Inspector of Custodial Services Neil Morgan said the costs of bringing Banksia Hill up to scratch would "run into the millions".
Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis said it would be in the order of $1.5 million.
But they both agree on one thing: the Department of Corrective Services' plan to return the juvenile inmates to their usual facility by August 26 is unlikely to be achieved.
Mr Francis and Mr Morgan say its more likely all of the detainees will be back towards the end of this year.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
A key recommendation of the inspector's report was that the teens need to be kept busy with constructive programs, rather than being in lockdown for up to 23 hours a day because of staff shortages.
He was also critical of what he described as the overuse of strip searches, which was an affront to the teenagers' dignity.
"They sometimes have to move the young people between Hakea Prison ... and Banksia Hill," Mr Morgan told ABC radio.
"Now at the moment they are strip searching those people when they exit one facility, they are strip searching them again when they enter the other facility.
"All that's happened is they have moved from one secure Department of Corrective Services facility to another in a secure Department of Corrective Services vehicle.
"I believe strip searching should be limited to cases where it's based on an individual risk assessment and this routine strip searching is not acceptable."
