The Sir Leslie Wilson Youth Detention Centre was infamous for its poor treatment of children in detention; many of whom had committed no crime and were incarcerated merely for being homeless or because they were orphans.
“…the Wilson Centre [was] a ‘dumping ground’ for homeless young people and young women being held for being “uncontrollable” for running away from home.”
“…the Wilson system imposed the undesirable labels of ‘criminal’ or ‘deviant’ on the young people in its care whose ‘crime’ was often nothing more than running away from destructive family environments.”
“Management techniques at Wilson included corporal punishment: there were reports of a boy being kicked for being slow to obey an order and two boys with arms broken as a result of having their arms twisted behind their backs.”
“Young people were treated, their families were not. Many young people came from homes where one or both parents were alcoholics.”
“Every door on every ward was locked, every window was barred and fitted with bullet-proof glass. There were also facilities for solitary confinement, but no provision at all to continue the young people’s education.”
“Days at Wilson were long, boring and unproductive, relieved for short periods by woodwork sessions for boys and knitting for girls. Television, one hour’s recreation in a walled yard and the regular use of sedation helped the time to pass.”
“By the mid-1970s, it had also become obvious that there were serious problems in the whole Wilson system. Discipline under a former Army officer was severe; the findings of government psychiatrists could never be questioned.”
This was when the Wilson Protest Group was formed, led by Father Wally Dethlefs. The group lobbied “for an official investigation into how young people were coming into contact with the law, whether it was correct that young people’s rights were not being observed, and what alternatives to large closed institutions were available.”
In 1977 the Wilson Protest Group became Justice for Juveniles and established YAC. In their various incarnations all three fought to shut the Wilson Centre down.
Finally in 1999 the Forde Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions brought about the end of the infamous Wilson Centre:
“The Centre was closed on 29 April 2001 by the local member of Parliament, the Premier Peter Beattie, and demolished not long afterwards. A quarter of a century had passed since Wally Dethlefs alerted the public to the abusive and unproductive system which had prevailed there.”
Quotations taken from
‘Giving Youth a voice’ by Helen Gregory |
