In the space of four weeks in November 2024, there were at least 63 recorded cases of children in Western Australia’s youth detention system attempting to harm themselves. This means on the average day that month there were at least two self-harm attempts. During the same period there were also seven recorded cases of children attempting suicide in youth detention. In the past 18 months, two children have died in Western Australia’s youth detention system from harming themselves.
About 82 children ages 10 to 17 were incarcerated in Western Australia’s youth detention system on the average night in 2024. While the overall number of children incarcerated may sound small, these children are facing some of the most egregious human rights violations in Australia. The rate at which they are harming themselves shows how desperate they are.
Among children who are incarcerated, First Nations children remain hugely over-represented. In Western Australia, Aboriginal children are nearly 25 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous children. This is a result of systemic racism – which the Australian Human Rights Commission has defined as “the history, ideology, culture and interactions of institutions and policies that work together to perpetuate inequity” because of people’s racial or cultural background.
More than half of the children detained in Western Australia are also unsentenced. This means they are yet to be convicted for their alleged offences or have been found guilty but are awaiting sentencing.
Among the rights violations children in the Western Australian criminal justice system are experiencing, is the ongoing incarceration of children in Unit 18 – a cellblock of the Casuarina maximum-security prison. International human rights law states that detention of children must be only be used as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Children who are incarcerated should be accorded treatment appropriate to their age.
The Western Australian coroner, Aboriginal community leaders, and more than 100 experts and advocates have all called for the urgent closure of Unit 18, acknowledging that a maximum security prison is an inappropriate place for children.
When Unit 18 was established in 2022, the Western Australian government claimed it would be a temporary facility. However, despite this and the widespread calls for its closure, it is still operating more than two years later.
An inquest into the death of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd, who died in 2023 after inflicting harm on himself, heard from the former Western Australian Department of Justice director-general that when Unit 18 was first established the department misrepresented what social services would be available to children at the facility. The inquest also heard from a nurse who worked at the facility that children in Unit 18 were held in their cells for more than 22 hours a day, often without running water.
Western Australia, like most other Australian states and territories, sets its age of criminal responsibility – the minimum age at which children can be held legally responsible and incarcerated for offenses – at 10 years. International standards recommend setting the age of criminal responsibility at no younger than 14, acknowledging that the brains of children below this age are still developing. This development affects their maturity and capacity for abstract reasoning, making them less likely to comprehend the consequences of their actions or navigate criminal proceedings effectively.
In 2021, Western Australia Labor party members passed a motion at their state conference calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised. But the Western Australian Labor government has not made any change.
Western Australian premier Roger Cook recently made public comments seeking to dismiss Human Rights Watch’s serious concerns about the rights violations children in his state’s criminal justice system have been subject to.
While government officials might seek to downplay the problem, there is an urgent need for major reform in Western Australia’s approach to children who are accused of unlawful behaviour.
Data shows that the current system is not only violating children’s rights, but that it is ineffective in reducing crime. Currently, about half of the children who are incarcerated return to detention within two years of their release.
The West Australian government recently announced a new early intervention initiative to divert children under 10 away from the criminal justice system.
While this initiative is welcome in providing early intervention for children before they are detained, legislative reform including raising the age of criminal responsibility is crucial. Raising the age would not preclude the government from making non-criminal, child-friendly, and multi-disciplinary interventions in response to unlawful behaviour.
Community-based alternatives to detention such as culturally appropriate on-country camps, rehabilitation programs and additional programs offering services like housing support, recommended by the organisation Social Reinvestment Western Australia, provide a blueprint for youth justice reform.