'Confronting and frantic': NT teenage detainee left naked for hours
A boy in the Northern Territory's troubled juvenile detention system was left naked for almost 11 hours because he'd attempted self harm, a new report shows.
The damning investigation by the NT Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne identified systemic failings in dealing with young people who had threatened or inflicted self-harm and were placed in an isolated "at-risk" cell.
One teenager who had attempted self harm by ripping a sheet was denied clothing and bedding for several hours.
Footage of boys being tear-gassed, shackled and spit hooded at Don Dale was reported by ABC's Four Corners program earlier this year. Photo: ABC
Dylan Voller had allegedly chewed his mattress and thrown toilet paper around his room and, as a result, was left sitting in the chair for two hours. Photo: ABC
Another young offender was placed in a solitary confinement cell for four days before being seen by mental health counsellors.
It looked at incidents involving detainees at the Don Dale and Alice Springs youth detention centres between December 2014 and September 2015.
'I'll pulverise the little f****r': Prison officers laugh as they gas six teenagers
New Zealander dies in Australian detention centre following 'scuffle'
The investigation found that the approach to incidents where young people were placed at-risk was "reactive, confronting and at times frantic".
"It is not cognisant of the complex, extremely vulnerable nature of those young persons and fails to apply a therapeutic or preventative approach in dealing with those young persons," the report said.
The Four Corners investigation revealed horrific footage of abuse and aggression towards the teenagers. Photo: ABC
The new NT government has accepted the report's 21 recommendations and says it will implement them all by February next year.
Labor this week introduced legislation to ban the use of restraint chairs on youths and had already moved juvenile detention out of the Corrections Department.
Ms Gwynne wants to work collaboratively with the government and agencies to ensure that juvenile offenders are treated in a rehabilitative way.
"We hope that those young people most at risk in our detention centres are provided with all the necessary services and support to safeguard their emotional and physical well being," she said.
A still taken from the 2014 video of six teens being gassed in the centre's isolation wing. Photo: ABC
Footage of boys being tear-gassed, shackled and spit hooded at the Don Dale centre was reported by ABC's Four Corners program earlier this year.
It sparked national outrage and a royal commission into the NT's youth detention and protection systems, where Indigenous people are vastly over represented.
The boys were taken outside and hosed off after being gassed. Photo: ABC
The inquiry's commissioners, Margaret White and Mick Gooda, spent Wednesday meeting with residents of Yuendumu, a remote community in Central Australia.
Residents called on the government to invest in community-led rehabilitation instead of juvenile detention, praising programs like Mount Theo, a retreat where Aboriginal elders help vulnerable kids reconnect to country and culture.
The commissioners are touring indigenous communities across the Territory before the inquiry resumes formal hearings in November, and will head to the Red Centre on Thursday to hear stories from the Mutitjulu community near Uluru.
