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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-06-14 Daily Xml
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MAGILL TRAINING CENTRE

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:34): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion a question in relation to the Magill Training Centre.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On Tuesday evening, there was another assault on a staff member by a detainee at Magill Training Centre. The detainee was excluded and had privileges removed for 12 hours. It has been reported that on Wednesday morning centre management withdrew that sanction, leading to a stop-work meeting by staff to discuss further industrial action. In the minister's response to a question in this house on Tuesday in relation to the Magill Training Centre's behaviour management regime, the minister explained:

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.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Was the detainee in question under any ongoing behaviour modification procedures such as those described by the minister on Tuesday?

2. What new behaviour modification procedures have been introduced for this detainee in response to Tuesday night's assault?

3. How has the centre management's response to this assault contributed to 'securing the safety of the centre, the safety of the individual and the safety of the staff', given that the outcome has been staff stopping work and the centre going into lockdown?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (14:36): I am grateful to the honourable member for raising this very important question, because it allows me an opportunity to set the record straight in regard to some comments made in the media by the opposition spokesperson and, indeed, by the secretary of the Public Service Association.

The honourable member mentions the phrase 'another assault' and it is very important that people are aware of exactly what 'another assault' means in this context, which I will come to in a moment. By way of background, PSA members at Magill and Cavan training centres held a stop-work meeting at 6 o'clock on 13 June 2012, citing dissatisfaction with the process of a resident being reintegrated back into a unit following a period of time in a detention room; staff returned to work at 6.20.

My department has confirmed that, following a meeting with the PSA on 6 June, a written instruction, as agreed by the PSA with my department, was issued to both Cavan and Magill training centre staff outlining the use of a detention room and the requirement for an integration plan to enable safe re-entry of youth following a period of detention. That was agreed with by my department and the PSA.

Those staff allege that, at 8.30 pm on 12 June 2012, a resident made threatening gestures, that is, a raised fist towards a staff member. Following this alleged incident, the resident was then secured in a detention room overnight to minimise any further risk to staff. It was not an assault and it was not a serious assault: it was a raised fist on one allegation—on one allegation.

In keeping with agreements made on 6 June, a reintegrative plan was developed for the youth yesterday to enable the youth to safely reintegrate into a residential unit. Yesterday, 13 June, despite the development of a reintegrative plan for the youth, the PSA called a stop-work meeting and has subsequently made public statements that a reintegration plan was not developed.

I am concerned for the safety of staff and do not accept acts of aggression or violence towards staff. Equally, I am concerned for the safety and care of children and young people detained within facilities. It is important to note that a lot of the young people detained in facilities are there on remand. They have not been through the court process; they have not been convicted of anything, and to say that they are there for punishment is completely wrong in the majority of cases.

The number of youth and staff involved in the current escalation of incidents at Magill Training Centre is small. I have requested a full investigation of the current incidents, including the examination of any video footage that may be available. I am aware that there are potential discrepancies in statements being made by staff and the youth involved in current incidents, and it is essential to ensure that these discrepancies are comprehensively examined for the benefit of staff and residents alike.

The spectrum of children and young people held within training centres is broad, ranging from children as young as 10 years of age to youth in their late teens and early twenties. The current incidents involve youth under the age of 15 who are on remand awaiting a court hearing. It is therefore even more essential to ensure due process is followed and every action taken to ensure the good order and safety of facilities for staff and children alike.

During May 2012, there were 20 recorded assault incidents at Magill Training Centre. Eleven of these incidents were youth to youth assaults and nine were youth to staff assaults. The number of reported incidents is approximately double the number lodged in the previous month of 2012, in which an average of five to six youth on youth assaults and two to three youth on staff assaults took place.

The number of assaults reported at Cavan Youth Training Centre in May 2012 was four alleged youth to youth assaults, with no alleged youth to staff assaults recorded. This is consistent with 2012 trends at the Cavan Youth Training Centre. In March 2012, one assault incident report involving a youth to staff assault was recorded. I am informed by my department that analysis of incident reports from Magill Training Centre for May 2012 indicates that a significant proportion of the incidents occurred in situations where one or more staff members had issued a directive or were restraining a resident or residents.

I have further been informed that six young people were identified as being of particular concern at Magill Youth Training Centre during this period, and they were involved in multiple incidents reported during May. On Tuesday 5 June 2012 the PSA issued work bans at both Magill and Cavan training centres. At a meeting between DCSI and the PSA on Wednesday 6 June, a resolution was reached for dealing with management of assault incidents and residents' separation from the mainstream population following an alleged assault incident. A new operational instruction was issued on Friday 8 June 2012. The instruction has created a new process for dealing with the separation of youth from the mainstream population following an assault incident.

The operational instruction has established a requirement that a reintegration plan be developed to support the management of a youth's behaviour following separation. Separation of youth from the mainstream population within facilities continues to be time limited and in strict adherence to the requirements of the Family and Community Services Regulations 2009, section 9. My department has also acted in good faith and created a roster of supervisors to work on the weekend and public holiday shifts to ensure adherence to the new processes and support for staff in the development of reintegration plans. This minimises the risk of further incidents occurring.

My department received formal communication from the PSA on Thursday 7 June confirming the agreements reached at the meeting the previous day, and their intention to lift the associated work bans. However, in subsequent formal correspondence with my department on Thursday 7 June, the PSA imposed further work bans because of concerns regarding caged, secure walkways and changes to the staffing model at the new facility to be built at Cavan.

The reintegration plan developed for the youth on 13 June involved consultation between the residential unit staff, psychologists, an Aboriginal consultant and the unit supervisor. At the meeting held to finalise the plan the residential unit staff failed to attend, despite a staff member being made available to cover their shift. The stop work action of the PSA site representatives followed the issuing of the reintegration plan. The PSA site representative noted the non-attendance of the unit staff member as evidence of no consultation on the plan.

The Family and Community Services Regulations 2009 states that a detention room means a room in a training centre set aside for the detention of residents of the centre. Under the regulations no resident under the age of 12 years can be detained in a detention room, and the maximum period permissible to be detained in a detention room is 24 hours for a 12 to 14 year old and 48 hours for youths over 15 years of age. A detention room can be used under the following criteria: the resident is about to harm himself or herself or another person; a resident is about to cause significant damage to property; or, it is necessary to detain a resident in a detention room to maintain order in the centre or to preserve the security of the centre.

The Family and Community Services Regulations further state at section 7 that prohibited treatment of a resident includes 'isolation (other than in a detention room) from other residents'. This in effect means that reintegration plans need to be mindful that residents must not be isolated from other residents for extended periods. The Youth Justice Secure Care Standard Procedure No.15, detention rooms, has recently been agreed as the active procedure in relation to youth detention rooms at the youth training centre by staff and management.

Procedure 15 is clear in its instruction that the detention room is not to be used as a punishment or consequence of behavioural issues and is only to be used as a last resort in line with the above mentioned reasons. Procedure 15 is also clear when it states that a detention room is only to be used for as long as a youth poses a risk, as outlined in section 9.

It is important to understand that these allegations of so-called assaults or serious assaults that have been made in the media are based on reports and those reports, I am advised, relate to young people being dragged off to detention and when they might kick out or when they might flail out with their hands and make contact with staff. They are not the same thing as serious assaults perpetrated on individuals such as you might expect when there is a bashing or some other altercation.

It is very important that the PSA and my department adhere to the regulations and the procedures that have been put in place, agreed by staff and agreed by the department, and that they are not pulled apart when a new site supervisor comes on shift and declares that they have not been party to the original integration plan.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: Nearly 10 minutes for that.

The Hon. I.K. Hunter: It is an important question.

The PRESIDENT: A very comprehensive answer. The Hon. Mr Kandelaars.

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