It was 2021 and I was working as a Residential Care Worker in a residential group home in Western Australia for children aged 10 – 17 years.

These children had been deemed so challenging and aggressive that unfortunately no foster home was no longer suitable for them.

This afternoon shift was no different for me. Another teenager had ‘absconded’ – the official police term for running away from the house.

When a child in our care absconded, an absconder report was written and sent out to all the staff, as well as the crisis teams, managers, and of course, to police.

Often times, the young people were just hanging out with their friends and wanted an escape from the home they never chose to live in, other times they wanted to locate some bumpers or steal some items from the shops.

They always found their way back to the house or asked to be picked up. As carers, it was up to our discretion as to whether we chose to pick the young person up. Considerations were made as to their age, whether they were alone, the time of night. Sometimes an open conversation was simply had about the teachable moment – “you choose to lie to staff and run off from the car, you will need to find your way back today.”

But on this occasion back in 2021, this was no typical absconding moment.

This would be the moment that would shape my view towards youth justice and why I believe Unit 18 at Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre needs to be shut down immediately.

When I went to pick up the 16 year old absconder, I had another young person in the work vehicle who was itching to go for a scenic drive. And I had no reason to believe either of us were in immediate danger.

However, when I parked the car, the young person got in the front seat, opened their bag and said,

“Drive the car. Or I will stab you with this knife.”

I could see from the expression on her face that she was serious. She held the knife steady and pointed it close to my body.

All my therapeutic crisis intervention training and experience of working in residential care taught me that remaining calm was the best thing I could do. That during a time when I felt utterly terrified myself, I had to decompartmentalise to keep everyone safe.

I very calmly asked this young person to hand me the knife.

She didn’t.

But what she did next is what saved all of our lives. And me really paying attention was the key to all of ours’ survival.

She began to cry and said:

“He rejected me. I can’t believe he rejected me.”

I looked up and saw another boy from the group home who was refusing to come with us. It was this boy who she felt had rejected her.

I knew just what to say. I replied:
“I can’t believe he dogged you and just left you. I can see why you feel so sad.”

She immediately burst into tears and that’s when I knew my focus had to be on her – not the knife.

Over the next 20 minutes, we drove in the car, with the knife between her legs, whilst I just listened.

I listened to her cry. I listened to her pain. I played music. I shared a laugh.

When I felt she was in a calm state, I even rubbed her right shoulder lightly with my left hand and said:
“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

This girl was no longer elevated. She wasn’t even thinking about the knife but instead, about the pain she was feeling.

When we stopped the car, I asked her for the knife and she simply handed it over. I called the police and that night, she was arrested and admitted into Banksia Hill Detention Centre. There was no fight or struggle from her – she knew why she had to go.

When I eventually gave my police statement, I recall shaking, crying and being in such a large state of shock. It was years before I could pick up a knife again and not feel traumatised.

However, despite the trauma the incident had inflicted on me for many years, it also gave me a large insight into a young person’s inability to regulate following years of trauma.

I wasn’t able to simply talk her through the incident and personally survive a knife attack because of my training alone.

It was because I truly looked beneath the surface – a comment made to me by the Senior Consultant Psychologist who was astounded by my ability to remain calm in such a terrifying scenario.

This young person was living with an intellectual disability. She had faced immense levels of trauma. She had grown up with drug and alcohol issues in the family. You could see and hear how much she missed her family from her phone calls to her family, to the photos on her walls.

She was a girl I had laughed with, had sang lullabies to as she was getting ready for bed, who I had cooked dinner with in the kitchen.

Even when my life was at risk, I was able to still empathise with her and seek to understand how she was feeling.

My decision to call the police and have her arrested was of course one I still stand by. No crime, no attempted assault – should ever be dismissed. An individual’s trauma does not justify any pain or harm inflicted on another.

However, what this incident showed me is that Unit 18 at Banksia Hill Detention is not the answer for our young people in Perth, Western Australia.

We know that housing prices are soaring, that we have a mental health crisis, cost of living crisis, family and domestic violence crisis.

That all of society, despite the high levels of social media consumption – is more disconnected than ever.

The answer is not to keep locking young people up and hoping that incarceration alone will solve the problem. It rarely does. In fact, it more often than not exacerbates their trauma and increases crime.

The answer is addressing the systemic causes – if children are growing up in poverty, what processes do we have in place at a state and national level to ensure that the impact of this poverty is mitigated? What are we doing to ensure that there is enough housing available so that we are really working within the Housing First model? What are we doing to ensure that individuals with mental health struggles are working through their challenges before they worsen and create co morbidity with substance abuse disorders? What are we doing as a state and nation to ensure that women doesn’t continue to die every day at the hands of an ex or current partner? What are we doing to ensure that young people are not ending their lives in Banksia Hill?

Many organisations, WACOSS included, Mission Australia, YACWA, Centre for Social Impact, St. Patrick’s Community Centre – have shared many policy statements, research and statistics that reinforce and offer solutions for the many challenges we are facing as a state and nation in mental health, cost of living, homelessness, FDV, and youth justice.

As someone who has worked extensively in these fields, I feel it is about time that the government listens to the work that these experts have completed.

We have to continue to believe in our young people’s future. The only way we can do that is to address the holistic reasons why young people partake in crime. Incarceration isn’t the answer. Keeping the age of criminal responsibility at only 10 years old is not the answer.

The economic cost to society is significant – if we can address these issues early, help to support families when they need it the most, we can become a more adept society that seeks to find appropriate solutions not bandaid ones.

If the recent incident with young people on the roof of Banksia Hill Detention Centre has made me think anything, it’s that there has to be more to life for a young person than being on top of that roof.

If it means working with them to understand what they want their future to look like, if it means working with them to overcome their barriers to a future without a crime – it is up to us to pave the way and offer better solutions.

We can’t pave the way if we continue believing that these young offenders are destined to become adult offenders.

The change starts first with addressing the root causes and putting real solutions in place. And I am happy to keep advocating for these changes until someone finally listens.

Thuy Wood is a Youth Development Officer with management experience as A/Coordinator of Youth Services for a local government. With over 10 years experience in Community Services and Community Development, she has supported inviduals to overcome mental health, trauma, homelessness, alcohol and drug addiction, and education. Her experience working in youth residential care has reinforced her beliefs that consistent care for young people and more holistic support for the whole family is the key to helping young people fulfil their potential. Additionally, she is a freelance writer, blogger at Inside a Mother’s Mind (http://insideamothersmind.com) and mum of 3 teenage girls.