The National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the ongoing violence inflicted on children and young people at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre (AYDC), including the use of force, physical restraint, and the shocking deployment of an improvised spit hood on a child during transport in late 2024.

‘The Tasmanian Custodial Inspector’s safeguarding review, tabled today, exposes a system that continues to violate the basic human rights of the children it imprisons. These are not isolated events. These are systemic, predictable, and preventable harms in a system that cannot keep children safe,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

“They lock us down like dogs at the dogs’ home”: Children have been sounding the alarm for years

Just last year, a child imprisoned inside AYDC wrote directly to Premier Jeremy Rockliff, pleading for help:

“At the moment, they lock us down like dogs at the dogs’ home… We get excited when people come to our doors just because we have someone to talk to.” This child described being locked in their unit for up to 23 hours a day, with little to no schooling, little exercise, and no therapeutic support: “There are some young people that can’t read and write and would like to learn, but when the centre is locked down every day… we can’t go to school.” Their letter, included in the Custodial Inspector’s 2023 report, ended with a simple plea:

“I know it is hard to fix… The lockdowns need to change.”

Today’s findings show nothing has changed. Instead, the harms have escalated. A child was handcuffed, restrained, and subjected to an improvised spit hood.

In the 2024 incident that triggered the Inspector’s review, private security contractors transporting a child to hospital responded to the young person’s distress by:

• handcuffing him behind his back
• pulling his own T-shirt over his head to use as a makeshift spit hood
• restricting his breathing
• escalating trauma rather than responding therapeutically

The Custodial Inspector confirmed the improvised hood made it “hard to breathe” and had the potential to cause significant physical and psychological harm.

‘This is torture-adjacent practice. Children deserve care, not suffocation,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

Private security corporations have no place transporting vulnerable children

The report exposes deep systemic harm, including:

• inconsistent and unsafe use-of-force practices
• poor incident reporting
• inadequate oversight
• staff shortages
• insufficient vetting and training of private security contractors
• use of standard, non-modified vehicles
• no reliable therapeutic care during transport

‘Despite repeated warnings from the Custodial Inspector and the Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Tasmanian Government continues to outsource responsibility for children’s safety to private security firms. This is incompatible with any claim to safe or responsible care,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

Tasmania must legislate a total ban on spit hoods and improvised spit hoods 

The Inspector has now recommended what advocates have demanded for years: a legislated, statewide ban on spit hoods, improvised or otherwise, in every setting.

‘Tasmania remains one of the only jurisdictions where children can still be subjected to such degrading practices. No child should ever again have their airway restricted as a behaviour-management tool,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

A system that harms every child inside it

AYDC has long been described as:

• a “gladiator pit”
• a “war zone”
• a “kindergarten for the adult prison”

Children themselves describe it as a place where “even the cows in the paddocks have more freedom than us.”

This is not youth justice. It is institutional violence. It is state-sanctioned cruelty. 

Our demands

The National Network calls for the following urgent actions:

1. A legislated statewide ban on spit hoods and improvised spit hoods in all contexts.
2. An immediate end to the use of private security contractors in the transport and supervision of children.
3. Independent oversight of all use-of-force incidents involving children.
4. The end of prolonged lockdowns and the guarantee of daily education and exercise.
5. A full transition away from AYDC and all carceral responses, including imprisonment of children.

‘We must stop pretending this is a system that can be “fixed.” The harms we are seeing are inherent to the practice of incarcerating children. The state cannot keep children safe inside places designed to punish, restrain, and control them,’ said Tabitha Lean.

‘Children in Tasmania deserve more than survival. Every child has the right to grow, learn, heal, and be held in care, not cages,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

‘Tasmania has been warned for years by children themselves, by oversight bodies, by Aboriginal communities, and by advocates. Today’s report leaves no room for excuses. Tasmania must act now.

Not one more child should suffer violence in state custody,’ said Debbie Kilroy.

For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226