A shortage of prison guards is no reason to allow solitary confinement of children in detention, according to the national children’s commissioner, who has called on all Australian governments to ban the practice as a mean of discipline or control.
Guardian Australia this week reported on the Queensland case of an Aboriginal teenager with an intellectual disability who likely spent 500 days confined to his room for more than 20 hours a day – a case human rights campaigners have described as the most egregious on record.
Those in charge of Cleveland youth detention centre told the children’s court last week that 70% of the time that Michael* spent “separated” was due to staff shortages.
Meanwhile, children are being locked in their cells for up to 23 consecutive hours in South Australia and a report released earlier this month found young people in Western Australia’s Banksia Hill were being locked in cells “for excessive lengths of time in order to maintain the good government, good order and security of the centre”. A lack of sufficient staff has been blamed in both states.
Australia’s national children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, said keeping children in solitary confinement “is abusive and a violation of their rights.”
“I call on all Australian states and territories to ban solitary confinement as a means of discipline or control for children in detention. It is never acceptable, for any length of time,” she told Guardian Australia.
“This includes using solitary confinement as a means of controlling children in facilities that are under-resourced or short-staffed.”
The United Nations has said “solitary confinement should not be used for a child” and that “any separation of the child from others should be for the shortest possible time and used only as a measure of last resort for the protection of the child or others.”
The UN defines solitary confinement as “the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact” and prolonged solitary confinement as “a time period in excess of 15 consecutive days”.
In the Queensland case, a report detailing 73 consecutive days found Michael was allowed out of his cell for more than three hours on only one occasion during that period. Judge Nathan Jarro last week ordered that Michael be released after serving only 50% of his overall sentence for rape, sexual assault and robbery, to take into account the “special circumstances” of his treatment in youth detention.
Sophie Wiggans, from the Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion, said Michael’s story was “shocking” and an example of why Australia needs independent monitoring of places of detention.
“It brings into question our government’s commitment to many of its international obligations, including those under the convention on the rights of the child, the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the convention against torture and its optional protocol,” she said.
Churchill fellow Andreea Lachsz is researching a PhD on the use of torture and ill-treatment in detention. Lachsz said staff shortages are not an excuse for Australia to dodge its international obligations.
“When people are detained by the state they are in the state’s care and the state has a responsibility to appropriately protect those people’s human rights regardless of resourcing,” she said.
Lachsz said solitary confinement was initially used decades ago because there was an assumption that it would give people an opportunity to reflect on their “harmful conduct” and have rehabilitative effects.
But research since then has shown it is harmful and can add to children’s pre-existing trauma and mental health issues, she said.
When asked about Michael’s case on Wednesday, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said she was not aware of the matter and, as such, would not comment.
In a statement, the youth justice minister, Di Farmer, argued that detailed logbooks showed Michael had “spent varied amounts of time out of [his] room” to attend programs, school and receive healthcare.
She said separation of a young person allows human contact, including with staff, via phone calls, and personal and professional visits as required.
* Michael is not his real name
Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
