{"id":401704,"date":"2025-11-24T16:54:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401704\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:54:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:54:30","slug":"disturbance-at-banksia-hill-detention-centre-children-on-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401704\/","title":{"rendered":"Disturbance at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, children on roof"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least six detainees climbed onto the roof of the Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Canning Vale on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/p>\n

Detainees on the roof of Banksia Hill Detention Centre during a disturbance.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

Aerial footage showed a group of children ripping off air vents and bits of metal roofing and throwing projectiles at guards below.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

A number of young people could be seen on the roof. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

One was seen letting off a fire extinguisher, while another brandished a megaphone.<\/p>\n

Banksia Hill is a maximum-security facility that holds boys and girls aged between 10 and 17 years old.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The incident began on Monday afternoon. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice confirmed Corrective Services officers were “responding to an incident involving a group of young people”.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Two detainees on the roof of Banksia Hill Detention Centre.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“Officers are working to resolve the situation safely,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The situation was still unresolved at 6.30pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There have been several disturbances at Banksia Hill over the years.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Detainees on the roof of Banksia Hill Detention Centre.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

Dozens of detainees took part in a riot in 2013<\/a>, while in 2017, officers with shields and helmets used stun grenades and pepper spray to restore order after a three-hour rampage.<\/a><\/p>\n

On New Year\u2019s Eve in 2022, two buildings were set alight after a riot.<\/a><\/p>\n

Asking the WA government the hardest questions on youth detention<\/a><\/p>\n

Advocates say WA’s\u00a0juvenile detention system is broken, and the government continues to fall back on empty rhetoric and platitudes. These are the questions they want it\u00a0to answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in 2023, armed officers moved in on the facility’s roof to quell a 12-hour riot<\/a> which then-premier Mark McGowan described as a “form of terrorism”.<\/p>\n

Conditions at Bankisa Hill had seemingly improved over the last year or so, with young people spending significantly longer out of their cells and engaging in rehabilitation and activities.<\/p>\n

Behaviour unacceptable: Minister<\/p>\n

It comes days after the state government committed additional funding and released concept designs for a new detention centre<\/a> to accommodate high-risk youth detainees.<\/p>\n

This cohort is currently housed in Unit 18, inside the maximum-security adult Casuarina Prison.<\/p>\n

\"Inmates<\/p>\n

Inmates climbed on to the roof of the detention centre on Monday. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Expected to be completed in 2028, the $156 million facility will be located next to Banksia Hill Detention Centre.<\/p>\n

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said the new 30-bed centre would be “world-class” and help reduce juvenile offending.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One detainee on the roof had a megaphone. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

Mr Papalia said managing youth justice continued to be a “challenging task” for the government.<\/p>\n

“This sort of violent and disruptive behaviour is unacceptable,” he said of Monday’s disturbance.<\/p>\n

“It shows the challenging task confronted by our youth custodial officers and reaffirms the need for a purpose-designed facility to house the state’s most high-risk youth, as announced by our government last week.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

At least six detainees reached the Banksia Hill roof.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The Commissioner for Children and Young People, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, said she understood one of the young people had an upsetting phone call and decided to get on the roof, with others following him up.<\/p>\n

Ms McGowan-Jones said there was a desperate need for a new facility.<\/p>\n

“We still have a lack of services available and individualised plans for each of the children and young people about how to de-escalate them when they’re distressed.<\/p>\n

“[Banksia Hill] is not fit for purpose, we do need new infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/p>\n

Detainees on the roof of Banksia Hill Detention Centre during a disturbance.\u00a0 (ABC News: Andrew O’Connor)<\/p>\n

“This new centre is really needed but more than that is the relational security that comes through the better relationships \u2026 between the staff and the children.”<\/p>\n

Ms McGowan-Jones stressed the importance of children and young people being able to have access to immediate counselling and supports.<\/p>\n

“We need a facility that is really in that therapeutic space, we need those services,” she said.<\/p>\n

Opposition digs in<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said the latest disturbance is a symptom of the government’s “chronic mismanagement” of the youth detention and rehabilitation system.<\/p>\n

Two children have died, but experts say WA has yet to solve its youth detention problem<\/a><\/p>\n

A year ago today, WA’s youth detention system reached what was meant to be its lowest point \u2014 a child’s death in custody. What has changed? WARNING: This story discusses incidents of self-harm.<\/p>\n

“There’s no other thing you can say about it \u2014 they have failed,” he told ABC Radio Perth.<\/p>\n

“They’ve failed those children. They failed those inmates and they’ve failed the men and women that need to take care of them.<\/p>\n

“The fact that it’s going to take over half a decade to deliver [the new facility] shows how little priority they have given to this issue.<\/p>\n

“We’ll have a racetrack at Burswood Park before we will have these upgraded facilities. That’s not good enough.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least six detainees climbed onto the roof of the Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Canning Vale on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":401705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,190142,190144,50,8631,190146,8632,190143,190145],"class_list":{"0":"post-401704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-banksia-hill-detention-centre","10":"tag-banksia-hill-riot","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-perth-news","13":"tag-prison-riot","14":"tag-wa-news","15":"tag-wa-youth-justice","16":"tag-youth-riot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115605726510225801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}