The potentially-deadly "folding up" practice used on children by youth detention officers in Western Australia will be banned within weeks and replaced with an alternative method.
Two weeks ago, a Four Corners investigation exposed CCTV and body-worn camera footage of the restraint being used on a young teenage boy earlier this year.
The restraint, also known as a hogtie or "figure four", involves guards forcing a handcuffed child onto their stomach, crossing their legs behind them and sitting on them.
The revelations forced Premier Mark McGowan and Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston to hold a crisis meeting with key stakeholders last week.
Both the premier and Mr Johnston admitted to being previously "unaware" of the restraint's use in Western Australia, despite it being outlawed in Queensland five years earlier due to the risk of suffocation and death.
WA's Department of Justice confirmed it has reviewed the practice and "has endorsed an alternative method of restraint for youth detainees to replace the figure four technique".
"Training for youth custodial officers in the alternative technique will begin on December 5," the department said in a statement.
"Use of the figure four technique will be phased out from that date and will cease by December 14."
'I can’t breathe'
In one of the incidents Four Corners obtained footage of, five officers restrained a boy face down on his bed using the folding-up technique.
The boy, Steve*, had hit a guard with a mop.
Body-worn camera footage of the incident, which took place at Banksia Hill youth detention centre, showed Steve repeatedly begging officers to ease the pressure.
"I can't breathe, I can't breathe motherf***ers," he cried out. Officers told him to "stop resisting".
He told Four Corners that guards would tell him "relax and it won't hurt".
"How are you supposed to relax when you've got like four or five blokes on top of you?"
In response to news of the ban, Steve's family member Deborah* said she had mixed emotions.
"It should have been banned straight away," she said.
"As soon as the footage was released, they should have said 'no more', that's my feeling.
"Hopefully this means that the officers will get much better training in dealing with these situations."
Another family member Jade* said she was glad no other family will have to go through what they have.
In another incident broadcast by Four Corners, Steve was "folded up" after spending almost 24 hours a day locked in a solitary confinement cell.
He was wrestled to the ground and subjected to the restraint after becoming agitated and kicked his leg through an open cell door.
"They push that far, you can feel your muscles burning and aching," Steve said.
Another boy described the restraint to Four Corners as getting "folded up like a pram", saying guards would push a detainee's legs "until you're screaming".
Queensland banned the practice five years ago after a review found restraint positions like the hogtie risked suffocating a child to death.
The Northern Territory Royal Commission into youth detention also found the practice carried a significant risk of injury or death.
Megan Krakouer and Gerry Georgatos, trauma recovery advocates who spent time working inside Banksia Hill, told Four Corners the ban was a small step in the right direction.
"The public reaction was outrage at this abomination, we have long called for an end to cruel brutalities," Mr Georgatos said.
"This painful and denigrating practice has hurt so many of our children," Ms Krakouer said.
"I'm deeply thankful and full of admiration and respect to the children and families who spoke candidly and openly about this cruel and degrading technique."
"However, I'm worried this new technique may cause just as much harm … I have no trust in this government with its poor performance of kids detained."
Four Corners' investigation also highlighted the ongoing unlawful isolation of boys held in a wing of an adult prison in Perth, named Unit 18.
Mr Johnston told the program there was no evidence of unlawful isolation.
Two days after that interview, the President of the Children's Court Hylton Quail said continuous unlawful lockdowns were placing the department at risk of contempt of court.
The intense focus on Banksia Hill comes amid a wider debate over the treatment of young people in detention and the minimum age at which children should be held criminally responsible for their actions.
Premier Mark McGowan has ruled out raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, even after a review chaired by the WA Justice Department recommended the move in a buried report from 2020.
"I don't support raising it to 14 under any circumstances," Mr McGowan said earlier this month.
The review, commissioned by the Council of Attorneys-General, found detention of children can disrupt normal brain development, compound pre-existing trauma and entrench children in the criminal justice system.
*The name of the boy and his family members have been changed to comply with Western Australian laws around identifying children the subject of court proceedings.
