Youth Justice Services

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding youth justice. Can the minister please inform the council how the Marshall Liberal government has had to clean up Labor's mess in youth justice services?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for her question. Once again, in this space, the Marshall Liberal government has been cleaning up Labor's poor record of running state services. In 2014, Labor introduced spit hoods into South Australian youth justice detention facilities. The South Australian Ombudsman, concerned about their use, investigated 12 incidents of spit hood use during 2016 and 2017 and released a report in September 2019.

The report noted that there were 57 reported incidents involving their use between October 2016, when the recording of their use commenced, to June 2019. His report concluded that the application of spit hoods to children and young people detained in the Adelaide Youth Training Centre was not consistent with the objects and guiding principles of the youth justice system and appeared contrary to the charter of rights for youths detained in training centres.

In the first year that we came into government, their use significantly declined, with spit hoods only used five times during 2018-19. The following year, in 2019-20, in response to the Ombudsman's report, the Marshall government banned and ceased their use, and last year, of course, in response to the Hon. Connie Bonaros's bill, this was enshrined in law.

In 2017, the Ombudsman also commenced an investigation into complaints by young people about their treatment. That report was released in February 2020 with some damning findings that the department, under the former government, had 'acted in a manner that was unreasonable, wrong, oppressive, unjust and contrary to law'. All 20 of the Ombudsman's recommendations were accepted by the Marshall Liberal government and we have undertaken other significant reforms since we took office.

This includes injecting $18.7 million into consolidating Kurlana Tapa to be a single site to provide all young people in custody with access to better amenities, facilities and programs, which is anticipated to achieve practical completion by 30 June next year. On a single site, this will deliver 80 beds to be able to be split into 13 separate areas for cohort management, including a new 12-bed accommodation unit with a centralised office space and a new eight-bed police custody unit to enable separate accommodation for remandees; a new classroom space to enable educational requirements to be met with all population cohorts on site; and an extended visiting space to support children and young people having time with families and visitors.

I have also spoken about our plan, Young People Connected, Communities Protected, which forms the overall framework for our approach, investing in new technologies, which includes body-worn cameras and installation of full-size body scanning technology at Kurlana Tapa, which increases the safety of staff, children and young people and visitors, as well as reducing the need for partially closed services.

We have also improved the Community Service Order program, opened the Aboriginal Cultural Trail and Connection Space at Kurlana Tapa and implemented the KIND program to assist young men and young parenting men who use violence.

We have also done what we believe is a national first, which is, from the most recent budget, a two-year child diversion program. The pilot commenced on 3 December to enable children under the age of 14 who come into police custody to be accommodated in a short-term alternative secure location, rather than being in high security Kurlana Tapa.

Also, pleasingly, the number of young people on an average day has significantly reduced, from 51 on average in 2015-16 to 24 in 2021, a decrease at double the national average in the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention over the last five years—from 60 per cent to 30 per cent—and a significant headway in meeting key Closing the Gap targets to reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, the target being 30 per cent by 2031.

The rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the 10 to 17 group has reduced from the baseline year in 2018-19, at 27.7 per 10,000, to 22.1 in the following year, which is a first-year improvement of some 20 per cent.