Protesters held an action outside the David Malcolm Justice Centre in Boorloo on December 15 to support the National Suicide Prevention and Recovery Project expose conditions in Banksia Hill Detention Centre, Western Australia’s only children’s prison housing boys and girls between 10 and 17 years old.
Actions were also held outside the detention centre and the electoral office of WA Corrective services Minister Bill Johnstone on December 1 and 8 respectively.
More than 10,000 children have been detained since 1997. First Nations make up more than two-thirds or 68.7% of the prison population.
The campaign has collected the testimony of hundreds imprisoned young people. Their stories of abuse and neglect, that rival those from the Don Dale Detention Centre in the Northern Territory, will be central to a class action which has been launched against the state.