West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has condemned a riot by youth detainees at Casuarina Prison on Saturday afternoon, which resulted in seven prison officers being injured.
Mr McGowan said youth detainees from Unit 18 were engaging in recreational activities around 4pm on Saturday when one of them assaulted a female supervising officer, hitting her in the head with a "makeshift" weapon.
They then took her keys and used them to free other detainees from their cells, before 13 inmates used a ladder to climb onto the roof, before damaging infrastructure and pelting debris at staff.
Mr McGowan said a total of seven guards were injured during the incident, with one suffering a broken foot.
Mr McGowan described the detainees' conduct as "shocking" and "appalling".
"They should be ashamed of themselves," Mr McGowan said.
"Their conduct is appalling and they will suffer the consequences; there will be charges that will be laid against them."
A Department of Justice spokesperson confirmed details provided by the premier about the "major disturbance" at the prison.
"Three buildings were damaged and one flooded from activating its fire extinguishing system," the spokesperson said.
"The detainees progressively surrendered to officers during the night, the last doing so at 2:15am.
"Youth custodial officers, prison officers and members of the special operations group were involved in bringing the incident under control."
WA 'horrendously short' of prison staff
WA Prison Officers Union secretary Andy Smith said the female youth custodial officer had been struck in the head with an "iron bar".
Mr Smith said another six prison officers, who had been seconded into the youth custodial environment, were injured and taken to hospital.
"Once again this is a situation that has arisen in an environment that we have warned the government about for quite some time now," Mr Smith said.
"We are horrendously short of prison officers and youth custodial officers across the state.
"We were lucky that yesterday this was contained and that more people weren't injured and we are predicting this will happen more into the future."
The union estimates there is a shortage of 400 prison officers across the state.
"We are losing 20 officers a month who are leaving because the environment is too dangerous to work in," Mr Smith said.
"Now, even with the department's promise that they are going to employ 258 officers this year through the training school, that's only 18 more than [the number who are going to] leave so its not actually addressing the problem."
Unit 18 to remain open pending security upgrades
Unit 18, located within the maximum-security adult prison, houses a small cohort of youth detainees from the Banksia Hill Detention Centre.
The conditions at Banksia Hill and the decision to house some inmates at unit 18 has been widely criticised by prominent West Australians, lawyers and human rights activists.
Children's Court of Western Australia president Hylton Quail described the conditions in unit 18 as "a form of child abuse inflicted on vulnerable and severely damaged children by the executive and the government".
The Australian Human Rights Commission described conditions at Banksia Hill, where children are locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day, as "cruel and degrading".
Mr McGowan said one of the detainees involved in the assault of the female officer was over the age of 18.
"We will be bringing in laws to ensure those over the age of 18 go into proper adult facilities," Mr McGowan said.
"We are not going to have them stirring up this sort of stuff with people under the age of 18.
"Obviously if you're 18, you might be hanging out with people who might be 15, or 14. I think that's inappropriate.
"If you're going to riot and attack people, well then you shouldn't be in juvenile detention. You should be in an adult prison."
When asked when unit 18 would be closed, Mr McGowan said it would depend on when security upgrades would be completed at Banksia Hill.
"We've got to do serious security upgrades, serious upgrades, because they are very good at wrecking things," Mr McGowan said.
"We've got to make [the facility] as tough as it possibly can be."
The upgrades would include "anti-climb materials" on the fencing and more secure units.
