In a Townsville courtroom last month, a senior manager at the Cleveland youth detention centre sat in the witness box to answer questions about the prison’s systematic use of solitary confinement.
For months, the state government has defended conditions inside Cleveland, in the face of accounts by guards, teachers, youth workers, court documents, judges and children documenting problematic practices.
A Guardian Australia investigation found chronic staffing shortages have caused widespread and extended cellblock lockdowns, with some children attending almost no school classes or rehabilitation programs.
But as those concerns mount, the state has publicly maintained a more upbeat view of conditions inside the prison.
In the words of one guard: “They just keep saying black is white.”
Now the prison’s acting deputy director, Andrew Morris, has given an account of what is happening inside Cleveland which is at odds with the government’s PR.
Morris was giving evidence at the sentencing hearing of Michael*, a boy who likely spent more than 500 days in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours a day.
Speaking under oath, Morris said the standard routine for children at Cleveland involved 16 hours in their cells – a comment that conflicts with prior government claims that the standard practice is 13 hours (including 12 hours overnight).
Morris also gave further insights into schooling at Cleveland.
When Guardian Australia last month reported that children who spent months in detention had attended almost no classes, the government held a press conference in Townsville. Senior executive director of the youth justice department, Michael Drane, assured journalists that when children were confined to their cells “it’s not the case that the school doesn’t operate”.
“It may be the case that the teachers or the program providers or the psychologists go to the young people,” he said.
But in the boy’s case, his barrister, Laura Reece, told the court that detailed records covering his 175 of his 744 days in Cleveland showed there were “only two occasions … where education staff visited him in the unit”.
This record was confirmed by Morris in court.
“Each day the education department provides all young people with education packs while in their cells, if they choose to do them,” he said.
“Alone?” Reece asked.
“Alone,” Morris replied.
The court also heard that Michael had been referred to a forensic mental health service, but that his referral was cancelled, and he received no treatment, due to the service having no ability to treat young people with trauma-related mental health services.
Previously, the department has responded to stories about Cleveland by insisting children have “access to specialised mental health service”.
Government response at odds with court transcript
When asked about Morris’s evidence, the department released a statement that did not accord with the evidence before the court.
The government said that Morris’s comments in court had been in response to a question about the maximum period a child could be detained for “routine security” reasons.
However, Guardian Australia was in the courtroom and has a recording of the hearing, in which Morris was asked how long children behaving well on “an average day” and “any given day” spend outside their cells.
Morris told the court Cleveland detainees usually spend 16 hours a day in their cells for “routine security” purposes, even when the centre is fully staffed.
Crown: “How long on an average day would a general detainee in CYDC, who is behaving well, let’s say, be expected to spend outside of their cell on each day?”
Morris: “Eight hours.”
Crown: “Why not 12?”
Morris: “Again for those routine security purposes, if we’re fully staffed it would mean that staff … are entitled to their breaks, half breaks, we don’t have a second group of staff to go in. Hygiene, shower times, staff training, team meetings.”
Crown: “That’s OK. For a variety of reasons, on any given day, an inmate would expect to be detained for the 12-hour daylight period and for about four hours?”
Morris: “Correct.”
When shown the transcript and challenged about its representation of the court exchange, the department said it stood by its initial statement.
“We maintain that during separations young people continue to have access to health and specialist services, education, caseworkers, cultural liaison officers, and phone calls,” a statement said.
Guards at the centre subsequently told Guardian Australia that it would be “rare” for children to spend more than eight hours outside their cells, but also that none had “anything resembling a consistent routine”.
The Australian Workers Union made similar claims recently, including that at any given time 80% of Cleveland is in lockdown.
Legal sources say the state is “clearly concerned” about the liability implications from the management of its detention centres. They point to a Victorian case and this week’s WA supreme court judgment, which found that frequent solitary confinement at the Banksia Hill detention centre was unlawful.
No reliable data on use of solitary
Morris was called to give evidence to explain discrepancies between “separation” data and other records showing how long children were locked inside their cells.
Several court judgments have revealed young people have spent extended periods in “separation” – which the department says means being locked in a cell alone – mostly due to staffing shortages.
In Michael’s case, he was approved by youth justice staff for a 24-hour separation on 515 of 744 days at Cleveland.
The department has said this is not a true reflection of the actual time Michael spent in or out of his cells; and that children subject to a formal “separation” often leave their cells for various reasons.
In Michael’s case the state provided a second report, which covered 175 out of 744 days – one sample week for each month – and was designed to show more detail about his time at Cleveland.
It showed Michael spent 125 of those 175 days in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours each day. If those 175 days fairly reflect his entire time in youth detention, he would have likely spent about 530 days in solitary confinement.
Morris said that obtaining the more detailed snapshot of Michael’s records had been a time-consuming task and that the system was not designed to provide detailed records to a court.
“We are now moving, we’ve contracted a computer, uh, whiz, to rebuild the [system] so we can provide the [more detailed information], not the data dump, at request,” he said.
While Morris’s evidence related to the ability to provide data to a court, it also highlights that those running the detention system don’t have an easily accessible way of accurately monitoring the cumulative impact of separations or solitary confinement on individual young people.
The youth justice minister, Di Farmer, was asked whether she had any concerns about this, and whether she would ask for an audit into the cumulative impact of confinement on long-term detainees.
She sent a response that did not address the question.
“Detention centres are challenging environments and our … staff do difficult work in complex circumstances,” Farmer said.
In relation to questions about why evidence in court, under oath, is at odds with repeated public claims by the department, Farmer said: “I receive high-level advice from very senior departmental officials and am guided by their experience and their insights.”
Written Off seeks to detail the experiences of young people in Queensland’s justice system, where record numbers of children are being arrested and imprisoned. Know more? Contact ben.smee@theguardian.com
