The Independent Review of Youth Detention, re-released yesterday, reports several instances of guards hogtying detainees, and recommends banning the practice.
The review identifies a number of cases at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville in 2013 where young people at risk of self-harm had their hands and feet bound together so they could be sedated.
In one case, a youth was tied in that way and held on the ground for over 20 minutes. As he refused to change into tear-resistant suicide-prevention clothing, his clothes were cut off with a knife, and he was taken naked to solitary confinement.
The force was ruled “excessive” and in “breach of the principles of the Youth Justice Act“.
Staff are not taught in training to hogtie young offenders, but there is also no official policy or legislation restricting its use. The report found that the method was an ineffective form of restraint.
A former employee at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre, Graham Pattel, described a culture of abuse among workers: “There were a few select workers that used to do it and they were quite protected by the system.”
The report first came out in April, but with almost one-third of its contents redacted to protect the identity of the youths in detention.
After public pressure on Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath for more info, some of the redacted material appears in the new version, including the info about the use of hogtying in state detention centres: “I am very pleased we now can release additional information in relation to this report — it reinforces again that the Palaszczuk Government is about transparency and accountability.”
But LNP Shadow Attorney-General Ian Walker called out the Labor government for not releasing the info earlier:
“Queenslanders paid for this report — they deserve to see it and this is the version they should have seen two months ago.“How is it that they can be trusted to read it today but they couldn’t be trusted to read it two months ago?“
D’Ath has said she would accept all the recommendations of the review. She also said she will direct $6.2 million to that aim, and to hire 53 new staff at Townsville and Brisbane youth detention centres.
Photo: Amnesty International.
