Detainees and justice officers within the Northern Territory's youth detention centres say chronic understaffing is partly to blame for an increase in assaults inside the facilities.
The Northern Territory Children's Commission said detainees are being locked in their cells for unacceptably long periods of time because there are not enough officers to safely manage the centres, resulting in increased tension.
Criticism of staffing levels followed a Four Corners investigation into youth detention centres around Australia this week, which included newly-aired CCTV vision of an incident within Don Dale youth detention centre near Darwin last year.
John Lawrence SC, a lawyer representing a 17-year-old boy who has pleaded not guilty to assaulting officers in the Don Dale last October, said staffing levels have decreased since royal commission recommendations were handed down five years ago.
"One of the key areas of recommendation was to man and woman these centres with fully qualified and trained staff," he said.
"And what we've seen is basically the opposite — we've got less staff, which is causing lots of the problems with these young, troubled juveniles."
Mr Lawrence told a court on Tuesday that his client's custody in the centre was unlawful because he was locked alone in a cell for many hours per day.
"He's charged with assault in relation to being ordered back into lockdown which he resisted, he was resisting to prevent an unlawful detention," he said.
A youth justice officer told the court the teenager had thrown a cup of milk at an officer after detainees were given instructions to return to their cells, and that two other detainees also created a disturbance and assaulted officers.
Mr Lawrence said his client and other detainees had been kept in unacceptable conditions in Don Dale.
"They get locked up at 6:30 pm at night they get their meal in the room, they eat some of it and the meal remains there until the next morning. Enter ants, enter cockroaches, and that continues throughout the night," he said.
"They are opened up at 8am and then they get out to have their breakfast and have one or two or three hours of tuition, then the sport and rec is held in the same block, they don't leave the block.
"They don't either see or touch grass, so it's grossly inhumane."
The case will return to court in December.
Commissioner aware of 'rolling lockdowns'
The Northern Territory's Acting Children's Commissioner, Nicole Hucks, told the ABC conditions inside the centres have not significantly improved since the royal commission into youth detention in the territory handed down its findings in 2017.
The commission's latest report on detainee welfare found young people were being kept in cells for up to 23 hours a day.
"As a result of that lack of staffing, you have a staff ratio that doesn't meet work health and safety needs, then kids are required to be locked down to allow for a cohort of other children in the same accommodation block to be allowed out," Ms Hucks said.
"I'm aware that there's a continued rolling lockdown."
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), which represents youth justice officers, said the centres are regularly understaffed because the government is recruiting too infrequently and relying too heavily on temporary contracts.
"As fast as they are replacing them people are leaving," NT regional secretary Kay Densley said.
"And they're hired on temporary contracts now because they reckon they've reached their permanent full-time equivalent, so there is a high turnover of staff."
Ms Densley said officers have told her understaffing has unnecessarily increased tensions in both the Don Dale and Alice Springs centres.
"Certainly, it has increased tensions and it's basically one problem creating another problem," she said.
"It's up to the Territory Families department to be able to staff [centres] adequately and make sure there are safe staffing levels."
COVID recruitment challenges
Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the pandemic has made recruitment difficult.
"We have had challenges over the last two years with providing staff under COVID circumstances and we acknowledge that the Don Dale that the young people are in now is not ideal," she said.
"But it has been dramatically changed since I first saw it in 2016."
A new youth detention centre that will eventually replace Don Dale is currently under construction at a site about 30 kilometres from Darwin.
The centre was initially expected to open next year, but this week Ms Fyles said construction was now not expected to be complete until early 2024.
Mr Lawrence said increasing staffing in the centres should be a government priority.
"Surely to goodness troubled kids need to be treated in the most professional and best way," he said.
