16-year-old girl involved in recent Banksia Hill riot speaks out for the first time
Last month more than half of the 90 detainees were involved in a riot that lasted more than 12 hours.
There were kids spread out everywhere, there were not enough guards
“It was cold, I wasn’t thinking about nothing when It poured down.
“I would rather sit on the roof than in my cell. You get fresh air and a large space to walk around,” she said.
At around 2:15 am the Special Operations Group moved in.
“Everybody was slowly getting down one by one and then there were just nine.
“They were just saying put your hands behind your head and lay on the floor, if anyone gets up we are firing.
“It had a little laser and when we were on the roof one of the boys, put it right on his neck. I was scared for him.
“They made us crawl to them, they were trying to make us go down to the ladder in handcuffs. I told them I’m not going down in handcuffs, so they took them off, I got down and they walked us back to our cells and they strip searched us.”
Six prison officers were injured during the riot incident, including one who suffered a broken foot.
Three buildings were damaged and one flooded after the fire sprinkler system was activated.
Mark McGowan was still Premier when the riot occurred, and condemned the behaviour of the child detainees.
“Totally utterly unacceptable, it’s a form of terrorism that they are engaged in. We are looking at what else we can do, we are looking at other tough love measures, we are having more meetings today,” said former Premier Mark McGowan.
Class action in the works
It is not a trauma-informed age appropriate culturally adapted place, it is, in many ways I think, it’s worse than an adult prison.
Noongar advocate Megan Krakouer is the Director for the National Suicide prevention and trauma recovery project said she thinks Banksia Hill will improve without the Former Premier Mark McGowan.
“There are less than 5 children in Hakea prison. In terms of their safety, it remains to be seen. My understanding is that the children are placed in crisis care.”
“It’s an indictment of the Western Australian government and in fact those that said Unit 18 was going to be a better option. That hasn’t worked. We knew from the beginning that it would not work,” Ms Krakouer said
“For him to make them comments was absurd and shame on him. That clearly shows the disconnect, we know for a fact that there are many children in Banksia Hill that do have FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) and they have been diagnosed in Banksia Hill.
“So for Mark McGowan to make those comments it clearly shows he does not know what he was talking about. I am really pleased he is no longer the premier of the state. Because under his leadership, under his regime that place was not going to get any better,” Ms Krakouer believes.
After some tough times and even self-harm inside Banksia Hill, the young girl said she never wants to go back there.
