Mum of inmate says son worse after Tasmanian youth prison experience - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Anita says that while watching a report on Ashley, her son revealed he had been abused there. (ABC News: Jake Grant)

A woman who had hoped her wayward son would be deterred from a life of crime by a stint in Tasmania's Ashley Youth Detention Centre says he was traumatised by the experience.

The harrowing accounts of abuse from inmates of Ashley featured heavily in a 2023 inquiry, with some former inmates being awarded a $75 million class action settlement in 2024.

A commitment to close Ashley has been pushed back until at least 2028.

Anita, whose name has been changed for legal reasons, thought Ashley Youth Detention Centre would help her son.

"The hope was he would go there, they would help him, he would realise his mistakes, and he would come home and go back to school and be who he was going to be."

But from the first time he came home, Anita said he wasn't right.

"He was jumpy, you couldn't walk up behind him, he was just not right," she said.

He'd only spent a few months in Tasmania's only custodial facility for young offenders and was 13 years old at the time.

From then on, she said, he just kept going back to Ashley (AYDC).

"He was on bail; he just kept not being home when they came around. He was a kid, he was out," she said.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre is Tasmania's only custodial facility for young offenders. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)

It was years later, when watching a 60 Minutes episode on AYDC, that her son revealed he was abused in the centre.

Anita said her son had spent years advocating and speaking out, but what he went through had caught up with him.

"We nearly lost him last week," she said.

"He needs help, he needs serious long-term help."

Ashley Home for Boys was established in the 1920s, later rebranded as Ashley Youth Detention Centre in 1999. (ABC News)

Ashley Youth Detention Centre was supposed to have closed two years ago this December. It's possibly going to remain open until mid 2028.

Known as a "prison for kids" or Risdon Prison's kindergarten, given its high graduation rate, AYDC's horrific history has made national headlines in the past.

A 2022 Commission of Inquiry into government responses to child sexual abuse in institutional settings revealed a past and present of sexual and physical abuse.

It is a place where children would often come out more traumatised than when they entered, the commissioners found.

That inquiry recommended that AYDC be closed as soon as possible and a new, more therapeutic model built.

Former judge Robert Benjamin was one of the commissioners on the inquiry and is now tasked with monitoring the government's implementation of the 191 recommendations.

His recent annual report noted that plans to close AYDC have been delayed once more because they are dependent on the progression of the new building.

"The centre remains a setting that is not conducive to meeting the individual needs of children and young people," he said.

Mr Benjamin said that while there had been recent improvements at AYDC, more needed to be done.

"It is well known that detention facilities generally have an associated increased risk of child sexual abuse," he said.

"The department has taken steps to minimise this risk at AYDC to, as best it can, help ensure children and young people are safer.

"However, in my view, AYDC is not fit for purpose and the best way to minimise the risk of child sexual abuse occurring in youth detention is through the development of the new youth justice facility."

Anita says her son has battled since his time in Ashley. (ABC News: Jake Grant)

The commission made 39 recommendations that related to youth justice.

Just over a quarter have been completed, 41 per cent have been substantially progressed, and a third are in progress.

Along with the plans for a new youth justice facility, the government developed a new draft model of care.

If implemented properly, Mr Benjamin believes it could be "nation leading".

Other reforms are about keeping children out of detention.

"I consider that other reforms will support the principle of using detention as a measure of last resort and are crucial to the overall success of youth justice reform," he said.

Anita is adamant she wants to see AYDC closed.

Her son, she says, is "stuck" in his youth, unable to move on from his time at Ashley — a boy who she describes as once having a lot of potential.

"He is an extraordinary young man," she said.

"He could've been anything he wanted to be at the time.

A Tasmanian government spokesperson said the state remained committed to closing the AYDC "as soon as possible".

The spokesperson said the government had "tried to fast-track construction" of the new Youth Justice Facility at Pontville, "however this was voted down by the Legislative Council".  

They said construction of the new facility at Pontville "cannot commence until a final decision on the appeal against the planning permit was announced by the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT)", but confirmed that planning and other preparatory activities could continue while the appeal process was underway.

"A revised completion date will be confirmed once the outcome of the TASCAT appeals process is known," they said.