Ashley Youth Detention Centre Is Closing - What Happens Now?
The only youth detention centre in Tasmania is set to close soon, with plans in place to replace it with another facility. This comes on the back of decades of calls for action to shut down the centre for its particularly egregious treatment of its youth detainees. A recent United Nations review into Australia’s human rights record flagged the Ashley Youth Detention Centre as an especially serious example of Australia’s failing youth justice system, with the practice of solitary confinement being a notable concern.
The Ashley Youth Detention Centre has been no stranger to controversy. Various class actions over the years have reported systemic physical and sexual abuse, dangerous lockdowns and staff misconduct. Youth justice and human rights groups have long condemned the practices occurring in this facility, emphasising concerns of inadequate therapeutic care, lack of safeguarding measures, and extreme uses of force and physical restraints. A recent incident involving an improvised spithood on a young person being transported was labelled as “torture-adjacent”, completely against child safety protection regulations as well as international law. It is clear that a system of ongoing abuse and human rights violations towards children has been allowed to develop within the walls of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. Children are being traumatised and exposed to horrific violence, far above and beyond the already traumatic experience of youth detention.
Solitary confinement and isolation measures have also held a prominent position in the condemned practices utilised by the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. Frequent lockdowns due to staff shortages means that children are spending 21-23 hours a day alone in their rooms, inevitably hindering access to rehabilitative and educational programs. A 2023 Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry noted the usage of ‘restrictive practices’ and ‘lockdowns’, which involved restricting all children at the centre to their rooms. The Commission found these practices to be very obviously ‘isolation by another name, and human rights abuses … [that] have the same impact as other isolation practices on children’s health and wellbeing’.
The results and recommendations of the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry prompted a commitment by the Tasmanian Government to close the Ashley Youth Detention Centre as soon as possible. In its place, a new facility is being designed to focus more on therapeutic care and intervention models, prioritising the rehabilitation of young offenders.
While the closure of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre has been postponed several times, the Tasmanian government recently released its draft model of care for the new youth detention facility as taking a “child first, offender second” approach. This approach focuses on providing a safe environment in which detainees can prepare to reintegrate after detention, while also supporting access to family and community support. The proposal is also committing to ensuring cultural safety of Indigenous detainees, who make up over 30% of the centre’s juvenile population, ensuring that they also have access to family, cultural mentors and community-led programs.
While the latest update from the new Tasmanian youth detention facility is promising, it remains to be seen how these plans will be brought into effect. In the meantime, the Ashley Youth Detention Centre remains open, only set to be closed down by 2028 – long past its expiration date. Hopefully, its successor learns from the mistakes of the past, and commits to the care, protection and rehabilitation of the children being detained.