An incident in which a t-shirt was used as a makeshift spit hood on a handcuffed teenager detained at Tasmania’s Ashley Youth Detention Centre has been found to breach human rights and child safety standards.
The findings by Custodial Inspector Dr Grant Davies were tabled in parliament on Tuesday after an investigation into the November 2024 incident.
The teenager was being transported back to Ashley after a hospital visit in Launceston when private security staff pulled his shirt over his head while his hands were cuffed behind his back.
Staff reported the youth had been spitting during the trip.
The young person later told investigators the covering “made it hard to breathe”.
Dr Davies said his office found significant gaps in safeguards designed to protect young people in custody.
“They found that basic requirements of the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Act 2023 were not being met by security officers, nor by DECYP in its management of their work,” he wrote.
While acknowledging staff have a right to safety, the inspector said detained young people must still be treated humanely.
He recommended spit hoods be banned in law, noting the United Nations has called for their use to end across all jurisdictions.
Tasmania’s prison service prohibited spit hoods on juveniles in 2022, but the ban did not explicitly extend to Ashley until after this incident.
The Department for Education, Children and Young People has since confirmed that all spit hoods – including improvised versions – are now prohibited at the centre.
The private security firm involved did not take part in the inquiry.
Its lawyers said the company rejected many of the allegations and described some claims in the report as “untested, false and defamatory”.
Greens children and young people spokesperson Cecily Rosol said the report was “harrowing”.
“Other systemic issues uncovered by the custodial inspector relating to the use of force, incident reporting and screening and training of private security officers must be addressed,” she said.
“The care of children and young people in custody should be truly respectful and therapeutic.”
Ashley has faced longstanding scrutiny over its treatment of detainees.
Last year, 129 former detainees received a $75 million class action settlement for abuse suffered between 1961 and 2021.
The state government has previously committed to closing the facility, with plans for a replacement in Brighton now being worked through.
