A right to information request has revealed Ashley Youth Detention Centre provides ad-hoc and inconsistent physical and physiological safety, access to drug and alcohol counselling is limited, and the physical environment is not designed to be therapeutic.
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A report, Custodial Youth Justice Organisational Change Program, released as part of the request said the centre lacked strategic co-ordination.
Improvements made based on Worksafe recommendations meant the centre provided a "satisfactory environment for consistent physical safety".
"Further improvements could be made to address the developing needs of children and young people," the report said.
Labor child safety spokesman Josh Willie said Human Services Minister Roger Jaensch would be remembered as the minister who spent $7.68 million on a failed youth justice model.
Mr Jaensch said the state government was committed to providing a more therapeutic rehabilitative youth justice system, which was why they're investing in a major redesign and upgrade of the facility.
"We know that Labor wanted to close down the facility, so they have no credibility on this issue," he said.
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Programs are available, but the report said they were in an ad-hoc or isolated manner.
"Criminogenic risk is addressed by generalised programs that are not designed for young people that have developmental delays or a history of complex trauma," the report said.
The programs were also deemed as ineffective or inappropriate for developmentally delayed or trauma affected young people.
The Ashley+ Approach Working Group was formed at the discretion of the director strategic youth services to define, develop, implement and monitor the Ashley Therapeutic Approach across the youth detention centre.
Issues raised in the group's meeting on February 13 last year said detainees seem to face "no consequences" for assaulting staff, don't have access to nicotine patches and only have milk to drink in the units.
The fact nicotine patches were no longer available to the youth offenders was "making them twice as on edge and angry", according to the meeting's minutes, with a note made to follow up on the discussion point.
In the same meeting a member said the job was becoming more difficult and there was no support on many levels, with another person reporting the clinical psychologist had resigned, but someone would fill the position until the successful applicant could start.
Mr Willie said Mr Jaensch needed to explain to staff why they remain unsafe.
In a meeting on May 23 concerns about staffing consistency in the youth detention centre's school were discussed, with training, leave and external study commitments across the teaching team believed to be the causes.
A Communities Department spokesman said a range of strategies were being considered to support the education provision at Ashley, including the Education Department allocating an additional teacher.
The executive summary of the report said the state government was committed to improving the outcomes for vulnerable children, young people and their families.
"The time for tinkering around the edges of previous recommendations must come to an end to ensure positive outcomes for Tasmania's most vulnerable young people, their families and the communities in which they live," the summary said.
The Ashley+ Approach is underpinned by eight outcomes that were developed after an analysis of the detention centre's practices was complete.
"It was found that centre staff are increasing their knowledge of trauma informed care and programs that are therapeutic in nature, however additional work is required to reform aged systems of service delivery and embed this knowledge into consistent practice across the centre," the report said.
"... the centre lacks a unified and structured approach to the implementation of therapeutic service delivery that is centre-wide and that current practice often exhibits pro-social programs trialled in isolation or as ad hoe occurrences, lessening the intended positive outcome."
Outcomes:
- Certainty and stability;
- Family and community connections;
- Independence and choice;
- Healthy ways of thinking, feeling and behaving;
- Developmentally appropriate, strengths based and solutions focused;
- Repair harm, develop empathy and address criminogenic risk; and
- Physical, physiological and relational safety.