The shocking findings from the report tabled in South Australian Parliament this week on the use of prone restraint and mechanical restraint at the Kurlana Tapa Youth Training Centre (AYTC) should be a wake-up call to every person in this state.
‘When children are being held face-down on the floor, cuffed, chained, and forcibly restrained by adults in state-run institutions, we must face an unavoidable truth: the system cannot be reformed, it must be abolished,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘At a time when the South Australian Government is introducing even harsher laws to imprison and punish children, through harsher sentencing for so-called “serious offenders” and a presumption against bail for what the government has termed “recidivist young offenders”, we are heading in entirely the wrong direction,’ said Debbie Kilroy. ‘These policies will only ensure that more and more of our most vulnerable children, including Aboriginal children, are locked away in prisons that are already using excessive force and violating human rights,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
The report found that physical and mechanical restraints were routinely used at AYTC, with prone restraint used on children in nearly one-quarter of recorded incidents. ‘Experts have repeatedly warned that this technique risks causing asphyxia and death, and it is banned in child mental health settings. Yet here in South Australia, it is being used against children in state custody,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The excuse that such violence occurs because of “staff shortages” or “operational pressures” is unacceptable. Safety and welfare cannot be traded away because management cannot get their act together. Children’s lives and dignity are not negotiable,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘We must also reject the notion that these harms can be fixed with more training or “therapeutic care models.” The problem is not just how the system operates; it is the system itself. Children’s prisons are violent by design. They rely on coercion, control, and punishment, not care, safety, or healing,’ said Tabitha Lean. ‘What these reports expose is not a failure of individuals but the inevitable outcome of locking up children in institutions that were never meant to nurture them,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘Now, more than ever, we must move beyond the failed language of “reform.” It is time for the South Australian Government to start imagining a future where we do not imprison children, where we invest instead in community-based care, housing, education, and culturally grounded supports that actually keep young people safe,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘The abolition of youth prisons is not a radical idea; it is a moral imperative. We cannot continue to allow the state to brutalise children under the guise of rehabilitation. The evidence is clear: prisons harm, they do not heal,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The National Network believes that this moment demands courage. It demands imagination. And it demands that we, as a community, say unequivocally: no more prisons for children.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226
