‘Hell in a cell’: Violence inside WA’s Unit 18 youth prison revealed
Key points:
- WA’s youth jail sees brutal attacks with makeshift weapons, raising concerns about staff safety and detainee well-being.
- Locking kids in cells for 24 hours sparks debate: is it punishment or pushing them further into violence?
- Aboriginal overrepresentation and leadership shakeups point to deeper issues and pressure for reform in the troubled system.
Detained children are attacking officers with make-shift blades, metal plates and planks of wood as frightening new details about WA’s youth justice system emerge.
9 News Perth reported the Department of Justice had confirmed some children were being locked in their cells for 24 hours at a time, with more than 18 serious assaults against staff recorded in the past 18 months.
Most of the assaults happened in Unit 18, the notorious youth justice wing established within Casuarina Prison, a maximum security adult jail, in 2022 to house the highest risk detainees.
In February, a Unit 18 officer was hospitalised after being punched in the face by a detainee. During the same month other guards were headbutted in the face, bitten on the knee, and kicked in the head.
The following month another officer was taken to hospital for being punched in the face. By July the violence had escalated to a detainee using a makeshift blade, known as a shiv, to stab an officer in the kidney and ribs and then split another officer’s head open.
In August, detainees were teaming up, armed with a shiv and a metal plate in a coordinated attack on multiple staff makers in an attempt to steal their keys.
The timeline of violence was revealed in Parliament in response to questions by the opposition.
The questions also revealed that 39 children with neurological or learning disorders had gone through the doors of Unit 18 since it opened. Two thirds of youth detainees were Aboriginal, despite representing 4 per cent of the general population.
Liberal corrective services spokesman Peter Collier told 9 News Perth the attacks on prison officers were unacceptable, but that 24 hour lockdowns were making the situation worse.
“[The youth] respond accordingly, they respond with anger, frustration, is it any wonder?,” he said.
“I do not in any way condone their behaviour, but at the same time, if we genuinely want them to reform to become more resilient, we do not lock them away for 24 hours.
“In a lot of instances the public think we should just lock them away, I understand that, but it’s not going to work. It is not going to change the mindset of these juvenile to have them locked up in their cells for up to 24 hours.”
Youth justice is shaping as a state election issue in 2025.
In June, Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston was replaced by Paul Papalia. Corrective Services Commissioner Mike Reynolds was shown the door in October, and Justice Department boss Dr Adam Tomlinson resigned in December.
A Unit 18 replacement facility is still years away.
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