Australia's National Children's Commissioner has added her voice to calls for the Ashley Youth Detention Centre to be immediately closed, after a Tasmanian inquiry heard evidence of detainees being sexually and physically abused.
Warning: Readers may find the details of this story distressing.
Anne Hollonds said she was horrified by media reports of evidence given by former Ashley detainees to Tasmania's Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.
"I'm heartbroken and speechless really about how could we in Australia be treating children in this fashion," she said.
"It sounds like it was a place of torture and horror and these are children we're talking about."
"It's disturbing that it's open today or tomorrow or the next day. I think the sooner we close this place the better."
Ms Hollonds compared the Tasmanian facility to the notorious Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in the Northern Territory and the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre in Western Australia.
"What's happened at Ashley is horrific but it's not isolated; what we see around Australia is we basically have a crisis in youth justice," she said.
"We need to find other ways of addressing the problems of these kids that lead to them doing crime."
'Don't make NT's mistakes', says Don Dale whistleblower
The lawyer who blew the whistle on Don Dale in 2014 agreed Ashley should be shut immediately, and urged the Tasmanian government to avoid making the same mistakes as the Northern Territory.
Jared Sharp, who has since moved to Tasmania, was the first to make complaints about the use of isolation at Don Dale, in the Northern Territory.
The NT government initially agreed to shut the centre after it gained national media attention, but it has remained open and seen an increase in detainee numbers.
Mr Sharp said this should be a warning to Tasmania.
"Tasmania needs to learn from the example of the Northern Territory and make sure that these issues are addressed immediately, and that the government doesn't backtrack like the Northern Territory government did and introduce punitive policies that go against the therapeutic reform model," he said.
He described the NT as a "really stark example of what happens when governments don't follow the road map" laid out by the royal commission which was sparked by ABC reporting of practices at the prison.
"It's all very well to give in-principle support and to say things in principle, but we need to see evidence of that happening in practice," Mr Sharp said.
Amnesty International joins call for early closure
Aboriginal Advisor to Amnesty International, Rodney Dillon, also said the youth detention centre near Deloraine in northern Tasmania should be closed "straight away".
Mr Dillon said the evidence of what children and young people had been subjected to at Ashley was appalling.
"They're supposed to make that a safe place for kids to be, and it's not. So it's not suitable for children, it's not safe," Mr Dillon said.
He said the families of current detainees also wanted Ashley closed.
"To hear what's happened to those kids in that place, some of those families must be absolutely scared to pieces of what's been happening to their kids there."
On Friday UNICEF Australia tweeted that it was deeply concerned by reports of "children subjected to extreme violence & sexual abuse inside Ashley".
"Far from being rehabilitative, the Centre is patently unsafe for all children & young people, who should be moved to safer community settings now," the organisation wrote.
Inquiry hears evidence of sexual and physical abuse
Tasmania's Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings started examining the Ashley Youth Detention Centre last week.
It has heard evidence that staff were told to change incident reports or shred them, and were discouraged from reporting allegations of sexual abuse to police.
Last week a former detainee told the commission he was raped multiple times at Ashley, starting when he was 13, and some guards refused to give him his medication until he performed sexual acts on them.
On Monday a female former detainee gave evidence that she was sexually assaulted after being left alone with 10 male detainees.
She said on other occasions workers watched her being sexually assaulted, and eventually she was put on the contraceptive pill so she didn't become pregnant from the assaults.
University of Tasmania Professor of Criminology Robert White reviewed the centre in 2011 and found it was not fit for children.
"I would raze Ashley to the ground. I would destroy the physical infrastructure tomorrow," he told the Commission on Thursday last week.
"We don't have three years of transition; I would get rid of it immediately."
More than 100 former detainees have joined a class action against the Tasmanian Government, over abuse they say they suffered at Ashley.
Questions about Ashley closure raised in Tasmanian parliament
In September last year, then Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein announced the Ashley Youth Detention Centre would be closed within three years.
He said it would be replaced by two smaller youth detention facilities with therapeutic models of care, one in the state's south and another in the north.
Tasmanian Greens Leader Cassy O'Connor raised the comments by Amnesty International and UNICEF Australia during Question Time in the House of Assembly.
"Almost exactly a year ago your predecessor promised Ashley would close within three years," Ms O'Connor asked current Premier Jeremy Rockliff.
"Will it be? Can you detail progress? And why haven't you closed this house of horrors already?"
Outside parliament Ms O'Connor said progress towards the closure of Ashley was "glacial", and it should be shut immediately.
"Every day the government delays and the minister dithers is a day where children and young people in Ashley are at risk. This is literally a matter of life and death for those kids."
"We have to close Ashley, it is harming children, and we've got a government and a minister that are dithering."
Mr Rockliff said he understood why there were calls to close Ashley immediately but it was about more than just closing a facility.
"There's a lot of work to be done, but it's important we get it right," he said.
"It's important that we take the required time to ensure that the contemporary youth justice model and the therapeutic care model is fully developed."
"I'm confident we can get there within those time frames."
'Re-setting our approach'
Tasmanian Minister for Children and Youth, Roger Jaensch, said "significant reform" had been occurring at Ashley since 2019.
He said the government was on track to meet the 2024 deadline for closing Ashley and in coming weeks a discussion paper on youth justice will be released.
"This is about re-setting our whole approach to the Youth Justice System and that is why comprehensive consultation has been undertaken with key stakeholders, including young people, on our Youth Justice Blueprint discussion paper," Mr Jaensch said.
"The blueprint will set the strategic directions for the system over the next 10 years, ensuring we have the settings and services that promote early intervention, diversion and therapeutic response across the system."
Mr Jaensch said the government has appointed an independent chair and an executive director for its Youth Justice Reform Steering Committee, and consultants were considering options for the new facilities.
* Names have been changed.
