WA government illegally held three teenage detainees in prolonged lockdowns, court rules

Three youths were unlawfully locked in their cells at Western Australia’s Banksia Hill detention centre and an adult prison for prolonged periods that amounted to solitary confinement, a court has found. Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AAP

The Western Australian government repeatedly broke the law by holding three young detainees for prolonged lockdowns inside the state’s only juvenile detention centre, the WA supreme court has ruled.

The supreme court on Tuesday found that three juveniles represented by the Aboriginal Legal Service WA were held unlawfully in the Banksia Hill detention centre and Unit 18, a separate wing at Casuarina men’s prison, for a total of 167 days between September and December 2022.