YOUTH TRAINING FACILITIES

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:42): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion a question relating to youth training facilities.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: My questions to the minister are:

1. Will the minister please advise the council why the regime for sanctions for violent behaviour by detainees at South Australia's two youth training facilities has reportedly been amended so that any confinement or loss of privileges is now restricted to a maximum of 12 hours?

2. When was this change in practice implemented?

3. How many assaults against staff or other detainees occurred in the six months prior to this practice being introduced?

4. How many assaults against staff or other detainees have occurred since this practice was introduced?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (14:43): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. If he bears with me for a moment, I will look up the appropriate response for him. I understand there have been media reports in recent times relating to the Magill youth training facility in particular, highlighting the issue of some assaults. It is important to understand that the number of assaults we are talking about are very few and, whilst the department and my office are very concerned about assaults on staff and staff safety, and in particular assaults on other young people in that facility and their safety, it is important to know that most of those assaults are caused by a relatively small number of people. It is not as though there is widespread disruption in the facility.

It is also important to understand that most of the assaults, I am advised at least, occur when young people are being dragged off to solitary confinement in terms of their discipline. In the course of being dragged off to solitary confinement or consigned to a cell for a period of time they either lash out or kick out and come into contact with staff. It is not as though these assaults, as they are often reported in the media, of young people involved in these centres are actually targeting staff, but it is usually a by-product of discipline behaviour and management of those young people.

It has also been put to me that there are issues about changes to the discipline of young people in terms of the amount of time they can be kept in detention. My understanding is that there has been no change in that timing. It is a requirement that, when young people are managed when they are being disruptive, those actions taken are not by means of punishment: they are a means of securing the safety of the centre, the safety of the individual and the safety of the staff. They are not meant to be regimes where a young person is punished for their activity; instead, behaviour management procedures are put in place to manage the ongoing behaviour of young people in these facilities.