Juvenile Detention Centre
A police helicopter flies over a Juvenile Detention Center after inmates escaped in Tijuana July 23, 2009. Reuters/Jorge Duenes

A new Royal Commission will probe recent gassing of young people. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ordered the creation of another commission to look into abuses on youth at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Detention Centre.

An ABC “Four Corner’s” expose on Monday night which showed six boys being tear-gassed at the Darwin-based Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in 2014 triggered the investigation. The incident happened during a riot, but the video clips showed only one boy who fled his detention cell and two other young males who were exposed to the gas while playing cards.

A photo released by ABC showed a teenage boy strapped to a mechanical chair in a prison in Alice Springs. His head was covered by white cloth tied around the neck. The boy was shackled for two hours in a chair similar to what the Guantanamo Bay prison used, notes lawyer John Lawrence in the ABC report.

Lawrence discloses that the juvenile, who has been detained in Don Dale since 2014, has been stripped naked several times. He was pinned on the floor and restrained forcefully by guards in 2014-15, reports Skynews.

The lawyer adds that the teens were locked for 24 hours in the Behavioural Management Unit, an isolation wing with tiny cells but no running water and natural light. Following the expose, lawyers and human rights activists sought the immediate closure of the correctional facility.

A shocked Turnbull, after a night meeting with Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs Human, NT Chief Minister Adam Giles and Attorney-General George Brandis, said, “We need to get all the facts out as swiftly as we can. We need to expose the cultural problems, the administrative problems that allowed this type of mistreatment to occur,” quotes Sydney Morning Herald.

He describes the abuse as a “very troubling state of affairs” that showed clear evidence of mistreatment of young people. The PM ordered Giles to set up the inquiry, although he has yet to pick a commissioner to head the probe body, Turnbull says he would likely name a retired judge to head the investigation.

VIDEO: A boy is returned to Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in spithood

Source: https://www.youtube.com/user/abcaustralia