JUVENILE offenders being kept at the adult Hakea Prison in Perth will return to their usual facility by the end of June once repairs from a riot are complete, Commissioner of Corrective Services Ian Johnson says.
More than 100 young offenders from Banksia Hill detention centre are being held at Hakea after a riot at Western Australia's only juvenile detention facility in January left 108 of 240 cells trashed.
Several inquiries into the matter are under way, while Mr Johnson gave evidence on Thursday at a Supreme Court hearing into conditions at the adult prison.
The action was brought about by parents of the young detainees following claims they were not being properly cared for and in some cases mistreated, and the Australian Human Rights Commission has intervened in the case.
Mr Johnson said testing of the repaired facilities would commence in coming days and the juveniles would start to be brought back to Banksia Hill by mid-May.
Assuming the testing goes well, they would all be back by the end of June, he said.
Mr Johnson said he was satisfied work to return the offenders was being done as quickly as possible.
Chief Justice Wayne Martin, who is presiding over the case, observed that chronic understaffing had been the main problem at Banksia Hill before the riot and afterwards, forcing prisoners to be locked down for up to 23 hours a day.
Mr Johnson agreed staffing issues were a problem that urgently needed to be addressed.
Assistant commissioner for youth services Brian Lawrence told the hearing that out of the department's 199 youth custodial officers, only 60 were available.
Almost one-quarter of the workforce was not available because many were on workers' compensation leave, including 35 on long-term sick leave.
The level of workers' compensation cases in the WA youth custody system was 10 times higher than the national average, Mr Lawrence said.
"If we don't have the appropriate number of staff ... we're unable to run the full suite of structured activities," he said.
And the ratio of officers to inmates was one-to-eight, compared to one-to-four in other Australian states and territories.
Rolling lockdowns and education were affected when staff levels were low, he said.
Recreation had also been reduced in the first weeks of the juveniles being housed at Hakea, he said, when debris from construction littered the football oval.
But the food quantity and quality, which detainees had complained about, had improved.
The hearing continues.
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