Combined inspection report for youth detention centres

Recommendation 1

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support continues to increase operational staffing levels at youth detention centres to ensure children are not subjected to ongoing separations because of staff shortages.

Recommendation 2

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures compliance with the requirements in the Youth Justice Regulation 2016 and the YD-3-8 Youth Detention – Separation policy regarding recordkeeping, including by conducting regular audits.

Recommendation 3

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support recognises the importance of ensuring children are not locked in rooms that do not have basic facilities – including a toilet, a basin with running water, and a bed or seat – for any length of time. 

Recommendation 4

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures that all separation rooms and holding cells in new youth detention centres (including those at Cairns and Woodford) have basic facilities – including a toilet, a basin with running water, and a bed or seat. 

Recommendation 5

The Queensland Government and the Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support provide funding to improve the centres’ separation rooms and holding cells to ensure they have basic facilities – including a toilet, running water, and a bed or seat. 

Recommendation 6

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures all youth detention centres immediately improve the condition of all separation rooms, including by removing graffiti, scheduling regular maintenance and adding appropriate soft furnishings.

Recommendation 7

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures all separation rooms and holding cells have intercom access that can be initiated by the children inside them. 

Recommendation 8

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures children receive enough time out of their rooms by:

• developing processes to ensure children receive the minimum required time outside their rooms each day
• auditing separation records to ensure minimum times outside rooms are achieved
• reporting publicly, including in its annual report, the average number of hours children spend out of a locked room each day, for each youth detention centre.

Recommendation 9

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support continues to implement strong internal controls and monitoring of their compliance with night-time or base level and suicide risk observation requirements, including ensuring regular, comprehensive audits of observation practices.

Recommendation 10

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support continues to take decisive actions to address non-compliance with night-time or base level and suicide risk observation requirements, including targeted local management actions and referrals to the Ethical Standards Group.

Recommendation 11

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support pursues systemic actions to improve compliance with night-time or base level and suicide risk observation requirements, including:

• developing a stand-alone observation policy
• implementing targeted operational leadership training
• regularly communicating to all officers both the requirements and the importance of compliance. 

Recommendation 12

Recommendation withdrawn.

Recommendation 13

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support works with staff at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre to review the recording of separations when children are in holding cells because of the section bound practice.

Recommendation 14

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support seeks amendments to the Youth Justice Act 1992 to include:

• definitions, authorising environment, requirements and reporting for the use of force and restraints
• a list of approved restraints and the banning of spit hoods in Queensland’s youth detention centres.

Recommendation 15

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support updates its policy in relation to the review of use-of-force incidents to include:

• a panel review of all such incidents
• an escalation pathway for serious incidents to be reviewed by a panel external to the youth detention centres.

Recommendation 16

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support conducts regular audits to ensure recordkeeping related to the use of restraints is accurate, and provides training and/or support where deficiencies are identified.

Recommendation 17

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures all youth detention centres:

• have strategies in place to identify and address unapproved techniques when using force
• train operational staff in Communication and Resolution Techniques (CART)
• conduct retraining within required timeframes.

Recommendation 18

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures body worn cameras reliably and safely mount to staff vests and personal protective equipment.

Recommendation 19

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support: 

• updates its policy and training materials to remove ambiguity about the ‘ready’ mode for body worn cameras 
• ensures that non-compliance with camera activation is addressed by centre management, and repeated non-compliance is referred to the Ethical Standards Group.

Recommendation 20

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures:

• partially clothed searches are not conducted as routine practice when children are admitted to detention
• staff are prompted to make risk-based assessments when deciding to conduct a partially clothed search, and these assessments are recorded.

Recommendation 21

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support commits to installing body scanners in all new and existing youth detention centres to reduce the number of partially clothed searches conducted.

Recommendation 22

Brisbane Youth Detention Centre ensures the repair and maintains the working order of the Milliwave body scanner until more modern scanning technology is installed, to reduce the overreliance on partially clothed searches. 

Recommendation 23

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support conducts refresher training for staff about the policies and procedures for wand and clothed searches.

Recommendation 24

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support implements a suicide risk and self‑harm management policy that:

• mandates the involvement of cultural teams in multi-disciplinary team assessment of the suicide and self-harm risk of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children. The cultural teams should receive appropriate training and guidance about the purpose of their role
• requires clinical and management oversight of the suicide risk assessment team to ensure appropriate plans are developed and reviewed to manage these risks.

Recommendation 25

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support updates the YD-3-9 Youth detention – Identifying and reporting harm in a youth detention centre policy to include: 

• an evidence-based approach to harm assessments, including harm definitions, how to conduct an assessment, and cultural harm considerations
• appropriate pathways for referral to external services – including the Forensic Child and Youth Mental Health Service – where harm has been identified.

Recommendation 26

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures West Moreton Youth Detention Centre staffing requirements are met so children can be escorted to medical appointments at other centres and hospitals. 

Recommendation 27

West Moreton Hospital and Health Service monitors appointment attendances and cancellations to address any emerging trends that are preventing youth detention centres from meeting the health needs of children. 

Recommendation 28

West Moreton Hospital and Health Service and Townsville Hospital and Health Service establish processes with their respective youth detention centres for issuing medication that:

• is not impacted by the structured day 
• provides children with an opportunity to raise health-related issues directly and privately. 

Recommendation 29

Cleveland Youth Detention Centre ensures that staff follow the centre’s laundry procedures to maintain health and hygiene standards.

Recommendation 30

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support works with Cleveland Youth Detention Centre to develop programs and activities that encourage increased physical activity for children in extended separation. 

Recommendation 31

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support works with Cleveland and Brisbane Youth Detention Centres to develop maintenance and repair programs that set a minimum standard for accommodation. 

Recommendation 32

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support develops policies to enable staff to address incidents relating to property damage in a way that supports rehabilitation and models expected standards of behaviour.

Recommendation 33

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support ensures:

• children accommodated in the Wattle and Jarrah sections at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre have access to fresh open air for a minimum of 2 hours each day
• all accommodation sections within the new youth detention centres have external recreation spaces attached to each accommodation unit.

Recommendation 34

The Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support reinforces professional and appropriate behaviour by detention youth workers, consistent with current departmental policies and the Queensland Government Code of Conduct.