Hundreds rallied outside WA Parliament last week as the campaign to close the state's notorious Unit 18 gained momentum.
The rally called for the immediate closure of the child prison Unit, a complete overhaul of the youth justice system, and the implementation of community-led alternatives to youth incarceration.
Organisers noted that countless reports and abundant research advocates for Building Communities, Not Prisons – "supporting and nurturing young people within their communities rather than criminalising them".
The rally called on the WA government "to stop funding youth prisons and instead fund holistic, healing, strengths-based, community led, culturally safe intervention programs".
Dr Hannah McGlade, Kurin Minang Noongar law academic and human rights expert, told the large gathering of her plans to submit a United Natons complaint regarding the youth justice system in Western Australia
Dr McGlade is a member of the UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Kylee Douglas, the mother of a child formerly in Banksia Hill Detention Centre, asked the protest to "try to imagine 406 consecutive days in a dark cold cell down the back, imagine only darkness for days on end, no sunlight whatsoever, no meaningful human contact….no access to water, no shower, no clean clothes…now imagine you're a child, and no-one believes you when you tell them".
"This is their reality….and it's high time it changed," she said.
Professor Fiona Stanley, the longtime director of the Telethon Kids Institute (now known as The Kids Research Institute), said: "Children respond to a therapeutic program that looks at their strengths, as well as their deficits and these strength-based intervention programs are the way to go."
Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, from Koya Aboriginal Corporation said federal authorities need to listen to Aboriginal people and take action.
"The feds are still paying non-Aboriginal organisations to have solutions for our people. They do not work. We know better, our kids know better," she said.
"One of the things we do at Koya is to teach you to see yourself with positivity, with the strengths and qualities that you have to thrive in your community."
Stuart Dodd, the grandfather of Cleveland Dodd – the 16 year-old Yamatji boy who lost his life in Unit 18, also addressed the rally to call for justice.
Organisers noted that there have been more than 600 self-harm attempts since Unit 18 opened in July 2022.
Justice advocacy group Break the Cycle currently has a petition urging for the immediate closure of Unit 18, which has more than 11,000 signatures.
Unit 18 is a stand-alone unit for children within a maximum security adult prison, Casuarina. WA's main youth detention facility is Banksia Hill.
A study of Banksia Hill found 89 per cent of young people in youth detention between May 2015 and December 2016 had at least one domain of severe neurodevelopmental impairment and 36 per cent had Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Rally organisers said the statistics "point to the need for culturally appropriate and well-funded programs and services to support these kids and families by not jailing them".
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly raised concerns about the treatment of children in Australia's child justice systems and has made recommendations for the rights of children to be fully realised and achieved.
Speakers at the rally also included Noonger Elder Ben Taylor, Jim Morrison from Yokai, Sophie Stewart from Social Reinvestment WA, Rickeeta Walley of Aboriginal Productions, Megan Krakouer and Gerry Georgatos of the National Prevention & Trauma Recovery Project, Clint Uink from The Greens, and Tanesha Bennell of Boorloo Justice.
