Banksia Hill riot: Minister blames ‘tactical failures’ after armed juveniles climbed onto roof for 17 hours

A few “complex, challenging and sometimes violent” youth offenders has been blamed for a 17-hour rampage on the roof of Banksia Hill Detention Centre, but advocates say they’ve been driven to misbehave by a lack of hope. Six juveniles climbed onto the roof on Monday, armed with poles, a fire extinguisher and threw projectiles onto custodial staff below. The youngest was just 12. The unrest was declared “resolved” at 8am on Tuesday. “Three of them came down during the night, and the remaining three came down this morning,” Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said. “They are well known to Banksia Hill detention facility. All have been there before, a number of them have very serious offending records.” He said the group was out of their cells and in school, several of them at music lessons, when the trouble erupted. And said a “distressing” phone call received by one child was no excuse. “Regardless of their background, regardless of the nature of their home life or things they’re encountering in their lives, you don’t get to climb on roofs, damage infrastructure and threaten people,” Mr Papalia said. “That is not acceptable. “We get them at the end of a long path, a long road, where many, if not all of these juveniles have been abused, or neglected, since before birth. At age 10 we start to encounter them.” Commissioner for Children and Young People Jacqueline McGoan-Jones repeated her call for much earlier intervention. “It is resource intensive. These are the children who are the most vulnerable in our communities,” she said. “They need the most support so that we can ensure not only they remain safe, but the entire community remains safe.” Mr Papalia demanded an explanation from prison authorities for “tactical failures” he blamed for the 17 hours it took to bring the children down, but he insisted the facility was fully staffed with about 70 detainees. Multiple windows were smashed, and the boys were observed kicking at the roof and tearing apart air conditioning units with long white poles. He called the incident “disappointing” but denied it showed not enough has changed since a New Year’s Eve riot in 2022 caused millions of dollars worth of damage. “We are on target to achieve the Closing The Gap target for juvenile detention of Aboriginal youth,” Mr Papalia said. “The number of detainees over time is continuing to reduce. However, I believe there is always going to be, at the moment and subject to some remarkable change in interventions or change in society, there’s always going to be a small number of people that have to be detained. “The nature of the individuals means they’re very likely to break rules”. The Opposition has urged the Government to fast-track plans for a $158 million high-risk facility to replace Unit 18 at Casuarine Prison, where some of the youths involved were transferred on Tuesday. “They’re sitting on their hands. They’ve not made this a priority,” Shadow Police Minister Adam Hort said. “This is why we’re not seeing the new youth detention facility delivered for at least six years after the calls for unit 18 to be closed.” But human rights advocate Megan Krakouer said a new prison won’t solve it. “We are sick to death of hearing (Mr) Papalia carry on about how great Banksia Hill is, when it is not,” she said. “If it was great, kids would not climb onto roofs, he has got to go.”