The Aboriginal Legal Service of WA has called for urgent action by the federal government to address the crisis facing Western Australia's youth justice system and the basic human rights being denied to young people in detention.
In a submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australia's youth justice and Incarceration system, ALSWA outlined the importance of legislating enforceable national minimum standards for youth justice, which it said would contribute to "essential and meaningful" change in youth justice systems across the country.
ALSWA chief executive Wayne Nannup said this would be "a step towards remedying the rights abuses that continue to be perpetuated against one of the most vulnerable cohorts in our society".
Complaints submitted by ALSWA on behalf of young people in Banksia Hill Detention Centre and Unit 18 of Casuarina Prison have revealed a myriad of human rights abuses, ranging from inhumane living conditions, to limited access to education, to a lack of appropriate health care.
ALSWA said the complaints demonstrate Western Australia has not been complying with its international human rights obligations with respect to young people in detention including those obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.
Banksia Hill and Unit 18 have been heavily criticised by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, particularly in regards to the regular use of solitary confinement.
"The youth justice system in our state is in crisis and the loss of life of two young people in a ten-month period is testament to this," Mr Nannup said.
Aboriginal young people continue to be grossly over-represented in the youth justice system in Western Australia. In 2022/2023, despite making up approximately six per cent of the youth population, 71 per cent of children in detention in Western Australia were Aboriginal. Many of these children also suffer mental health issues and/or cognitive or neurological impairments.
"Our young people are over-policed and less likely to be given a caution than their non-Indigenous counterparts, highlighting the over-use of arrest powers by police in relation to minor offending," Mr Nannup said.
ALSWA said the WA youth justice system is "broken and will inevitably continue to go through cycles of dysfunction and cause irrevocable harm to children and young people".
The justice agency urged the federal government to take "meaningful action" to prevent the cycle continuing, including by fully implementing Australia's international obligations with regards to the rights of children and young people, noting that the creation of enforceable national minimum standards for youth justice would go a significant way towards achieving this goal.
ALSWA advised the senate inquiry that creating these standards should be only one of a number of steps taken, further noting that a comprehensive national approach to reforming all aspects of the youth justice systems across the states and territories needs to occur, including by introducing greater funding and investment in the development of diversionary and rehabilitation programs for young people.
ALSWA told the inquiry nothing other than "a complete overhaul" of the status quo in relation to youth justice will be sufficient to address the human rights abuses that children and young people suffer in Australia on a daily basis.
"The federal government owes it to our young people to take urgent action to ensure their rights are protected. We urge the federal government to act on these issues as a matter of priority," Mr Nannup said.
Submissions to the inquiry can be read online.
