A warning this story contains content that some viewers may find distressing. It discusses incidents of self-harm and includes the image of an Indigenous person who has died. A senior department of justice official has broken down while describing degrading comments a former superintendent of Western Australia’s embattled banksia hill youth detention centre made to young people. Andrew Beck who worked within the women and young people directorate for two years has been testifying at the inquest of the first child to die death in WA’s detention.
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00:00When Mr. Beck came into his role as the Deputy Commissioner for Women and Young People in
00:082020, he said he noticed that Banksy Hill wasn't necessarily being run according to
00:12its policy and procedure. Mr. Beck, who'd worked in corrective services for decades,
00:17said he noticed the use of coercive control and high use of force, more so actually than
00:24in adult prisons. He added that Banksy Hill was in fact being run more like an adult prison
00:29than a juvenile facility. According to his testimony, when Mr. Beck attempted to change
00:34the culture, he was met with some resistance from several members of influential figures,
00:40which included the then-Superintendent Michael Heslington. Mr. Beck broke down on the stand
00:46when recalling incidents in which Mr. Heslington had made inappropriate and degrading comments
00:52to young people. One example that he gave to the court was when Mr. Heslington told
00:56a young man that had been excited about getting out and getting a job that he didn't stand
01:01a chance and would be back in an adult prison within a week. He said that there was a reason
01:06why every other jurisdiction in Australia had youth justice separate from adult corrective
01:12services and he said that was because the amalgamation of the two, like what is done
01:17in WA, just overlays adult responses onto children's needs. So he supported the recommendation
01:24put forward by other experts earlier in the inquest that the two areas need to be separated
01:29to drive positive change in the system.