No action was taken against Northern Territory youth prison guards found by a watchdog to have used excessive force against an at-risk teenage boy in fresh CCTV vision obtained by Four Corners.
The vision was aired in Monday night's investigation into the ongoing mistreatment of young people in youth detention centres around Australia, especially at the Banksia Hill youth prison in WA.
The program also highlighted a lack of progress in the Northern Territory on recommendations from a royal commission sparked six years ago by an earlier Four Corners expose on conditions in Darwin's Don Dale youth detention centre.
The prison remains operating despite the NT government promising five years ago that it would be closed.
Fresh footage of an incident that took place in Don Dale last year was provided for Monday night's program by the office of the NT Children's Commissioner.
The CCTV vision shows three officers surrounding the cell of a boy who was considered at risk of self-harm.
When the boy walks out of the cell, one officer grabs the boy by the neck.
He is wrestled to the ground by the staff members, who hold him face down for a minute and forty seconds.
The commissioner found the officers had used excessive force.
But in a statement to the ABC, Territory Families said the department had not taken action against the officers.
"The incident did not lead to an injury to either the young person or the youth justice officers," the statement read.
"While an internal review of the incident found that there was no malicious intent by youth justice officers to cause harm to the young person, we want to continue to improve the care and rehabilitation of young people in youth detention and keep the community safe.
"After an incident, staff participate in debriefing sessions focused on practice improvement and to enhance supervision procedures. Youth justice officers receive ongoing training in contemporary techniques through [training]."
In a media conference on Tuesday, NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the incident shown on Four Corners was "not acceptable" but had been investigated.
Acting NT Children's Commissioner Nicole Hucks said she released the footage out of concern that the treatment of children in territory youth detention had not substantially improved.
"Whilst the incident displayed in the footage is by no means the most concerning of the incidents I have viewed in my role as the acting Children's Commissioner, it is my intent that this footage will give an insight into the conditions currently experienced by children held in youth detention who do not have other mechanisms for their voices to be heard," she said in a statement.
Recommendations marked 'complete' were rejected by NT government
National Children's Commissioner Anne Hollonds on Tuesday said the incident was unacceptable.
"I'd like to see the NT government say this is not acceptable and we're going to urgently review what's happening and take appropriate action," she told ABC Radio Darwin.
She also criticised the NT government for what she said was a lack of transparency about its reforms since the royal commission.
Four Corners questioned the government about marking recommendations it had rejected as "completed" in progress reports, including one recommendation that youth detention staff should wear body-worn cameras inside facilities.
"Probably the word we're looking for here is closed, rather than completed," Territory Families Minister Kate Worden told the program.
Ms Hollands said she had struggled to determine what progress had been made.
"After a very expensive Royal Commission, now five years on, I think that would be a community expectation, that we are very clear what has and hasn't been implemented as recommended," she said.
"You can talk about words — is it closed or is it completed or something else, [but] it's incredibly confusing.
"I think the community would have a right to be asking 'why hasn't this been made clearer, and earlier', and [for] explanations as to why things that were recommended weren't implemented."
Four Corners revealed the office of the NT Children's Commissioner had received more than 400 complaints about youth detention in the past year for grounds including solitary confinement, racism and excessive force.
Chief Minister reveals new delay in shutting Don Dale
In the wake of the program, Ms Fyles defended the government's progress in implementing the royal commission recommendations.
She said youth justice in the NT had been "transformed" and 174 of the recommendations had now been "completed".
Another 44 recommendations were expected to be met when the new Darwin Youth Justice Centre — which is currently under construction at a site about 30 kilometres from Darwin — was opened, she said.
But she also revealed the detention centre being built to replace Don Dale will no longer open next year as expected and construction may not be finished until early 2024.
Ms Fyles said the government had been transparent about its work regarding the royal commission's findings and was "open to the scrutiny".
She highlighted changes made by her government, including the transfer of youth justice from corrections to the Territory Families department and significant spending on the expansion of youth diversion programs.
"We don't have anything to hide. We are being open and transparent," she told ABC Radio Darwin.
"Is this change quick enough for some people? No. But it is being worked through in a systematic approach, and ... we have a very different way of dealing with young people who come into contact with the criminal justice system than we did six years ago."
The government's legislation to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 is due for debate in parliament next week.
Since the Four Corners investigation aired, the WA government has said it will review the use of 'figure four' or 'folding up' restraints in state correctional facilities.
The program showed a boy at the Banksia Hill centre being restrained by a number of youth custodial officers using the technique, which has been banned in some other states.
But Premier Mark McGowan on Tuesday rejected calls for a royal commission into juvenile justice in Western Australia.
"There's been numerous inquiries, another talkfest, don't the public get sick of that? No, we won't be doing that," he said.
