Detention staff narrowly prevent child's suicide as Don Dale reaches 'crisis point'
Updated
Staff unions have described Darwin's Don Dale Youth Detention Centre as once again being consumed by a violent crisis.
Key points:
- A teenage girl's suicide attempt at the centre was narrowly prevented, the ABC understands
- Detainees have been involved in assaults and a "riot"
- The union has warned understaffing is "dangerous"
A series of violent incidents at the centre over the last month have not been made public by the Territory Government.
"It's been at crisis point for quite a while now, and it needs to get fixed and it needs to have things put in place to make sure it doesn't happen again," the CPSU's Kay Densley said.
The centre was made notorious by abuse forensically examined and reported on by the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in 2016 and 2017.
Practices including using mechanical restraint chairs, spit hoods and tear gas have been banned, and the facilities have been renovated.
'It's very dangerous'
Unions and other sources have told the ABC that at least three young people were involved in a riot in Don Dale on Friday 22 June.
"There was a riot a week or so ago, we've had incidents when they've been on the roof, et cetera, and these are the sorts of things that happen when there's no staffing numbers and untrained staff, it's very dangerous," Ms Densley said.
The ABC understands that a teenage girl was narrowly prevented from suiciding at the centre last week.
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It is also understood there have been violent attacks on staff, including an officer injured by a detainee wielding an iron bar.
Resignations and absenteeism have led to understaffing levels at which there are not enough workers to enable the detainees to leave their cells as often as they should for education, recreation and meals.
"Morale is very low and staff are choosing to leave. There aren't enough staff there, some staff are unwilling to work overtime, and recruitment isn't being carried out regularly enough," Ms Densley said.
The Alice Springs detention centre has also been so full that detainees have had to be brought to Darwin, the union added.
'Difficult period'
Responding to questions from the ABC about recent violent incidents and unrest at the centre, Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield said there had been "a number of incidents in which we have had a small number of detainees behaving in ways that are not acceptable".
"We all acknowledge that it is a difficult period. There's new staff coming into training next week and that will mean there will be more staff to support the change as we move forward," she said.
"But very clearly one of the biggest limitations of that space is the infrastructure.
"It isn't conclusive to running a youth detention centre and we're really looking forward to building the new infrastructure, which will be purpose built and meet the needs of both staff and detainees."
The Government has committed $70 million for building a new detention centre in Darwin, and has promised there will be more facilities later for Alice Springs.
Ms Wakefield said that the centre's operation had also been disrupted by the installation of some water tanks, and contracting work had stopped detainees being able to go into some areas.
'Incidents have reduced'
In response to questions from the ABC about the girl's attempted suicide, the Department of Territory Families, which is responsible for running Don Dale, said that "incidents within youth detention centres have reduced".
"This positive outcome has been achieved through a combination of reforms delivered since Territory Families took responsibility of the centres," it said.
It said the reforms included making the centre infrastructure more safe and providing increased and better staff training, including trauma-informed care and de-escalation techniques.
The Department said it had improved the education and activities programs in the centres.
None of the violent incidents in Don Dale were revealed to Northern Territory Parliamentary Estimates Committee members when they questioned both the Minister and the Department Chief Executive Ken Davies for most of last Wednesday.
However, they were not asked directly about violence in Don Dale by the committee members.
Improvements 'very slow'
The Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne said improvements at the centre were "very slow".
"I would be confident that we are not assaulting, we are not breaching, a whole lot of human rights conditions — but are we running a centre that is well equipped to change the circumstances for young people in those centres? No, we've got a long way to go," she said.
In November 2017, the Royal Commission recommended the Territory Government should stop detaining children under the age of 14 unless they had committed serious violence offences.
The Government has so far only supported that "in principle", and young detainees are still being held.
At the moment 100 per cent are Indigenous, and 80 per cent are on remand, not yet convicted of offences.
Last week 38 young people were detained in Darwin and Alice Springs.
Danila Dilba Indigenous health service chief executive Olga Haven said it was very worrying to see young children still in detention.
"Some of these kids have got three case workers or more, how is it with three case workers that you can't keep a 10 or a 12 year old out of jail?" she said.
Ms Wakefield said the Government was working to get more children on remand diverted out of detention into two bail accommodations, run by NGOs, in Darwin and Alice Springs.
Numbers going into those are still small.
"We have set up a bail accommodation. The uptake of that has increased since it started a few months ago," she said.
"We need to continue to educate the courts and police about the options that are available, and making sure we are working in a coordinated way around those children who are coming to the attention of police."
The Minister said the Government was also trying to make sure more children are diverted from the youth justice system into other programs including youth conferencing.
Topics: community-and-society, youth, government-and-politics, law-crime-and-justice, prisons-and-punishment, nt, darwin-0800
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