‘Degrading, harmful, inappropriate’
Survivors of abuse in state care have given a royal commission of inquiry harrowing accounts of being sexually and physically abused in secure units inside children’s homes. Decades later there have been some changes, but Oranga Tamariki still locks children in what it describes as ‘‘secure care’’ – a practice described by a Human Rights Commission report as ‘‘degrading, harmful and . . . inappropriate’’.
Edward Gay reports.
Keith Wiffin was just 11 years old when he was stripped naked and thrown into a solitary cell on arrival at Epuni Boys Home. With only a ‘‘toilet bowl as your friend’’, he recalls holding his head in his hands and marking the time by counting down the hours until his next meal.
‘‘It’s just a feeling of complete and utter isolation. You walk into a cell which is just dark. It’s stark and lonely,’’ says Wiffin, who gave evidence of his treatment to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
It’s been 50 years since Wiffin was at Epuni and although there have been changes since, holding children in ‘‘secure’’ rooms continues inside institutions run by Oranga Tamariki – the state agency charged with protecting vulnerable children.
Dr Sharon Shalev, an academic at the University of Oxford’s law faculty, has visited New Zealand twice to review the use of seclusion and restraint inside institutions on behalf of the Human Rights Commission.
Her 2020 report, titled Seclusion and Restraint: Time for a paradigm shift, includes findings on ‘‘secure care’’ rooms inside youth justice and residential care facilities operated by Oranga
Tamariki. It describes the rooms as resembling ‘‘prison segregation cells’’ and said instances where children and young people had to sleep and use the toilet in the same space were ‘‘degrading, harmful and, as previously suggested, inappropriate for housing children and young people’’.
While Oranga Tamariki management claimed the use of secure rooms, or cells, had declined, Shalev found the opposite was true.
She looked at one unnamed youth justice facility and found the numbers had more than doubled. In a six-month period during 2016 there were 109 occasions when children and young people were put into secure care. Three years later, again over six months, there were 298.
Shalev found there had been an increase in shorter ‘‘secure’’ stays of less than eight hours. But on 22 occasions, children and young people had been locked in ‘‘secure’’ for more than eight days. Three years earlier, there had been none.
Oranga Tamariki itself has acknowledged the negative impact of seclusion. A report prepared by the agency and quoted by Shalev concluded: ‘‘Seclusion is not effective in reducing either the frequency or intensity of challenging behaviour with children and adolescents. Rather, seclusion has been shown to increase the risk of serious physical harm, and even death, with children.’’
It said seclusion could be eliminated if staff were provided training in alternative methods of behavioural management.
Shalev’s report mentions a new two-day training programme for Oranga Tamariki staff, designed to de-escalate tension. However, most of it focused on how to execute physical holds on children, and only one hour was dedicated to deescalating incidents with verbal communication.
Oranga Tamariki staff gave various reasons for putting children in ‘‘secure care’’.
They included children making threats to harm themselves or others. But ‘‘only a small minority of children appear to have actually done something, rather than make threats,’’ Shalev’s report says.
Shalev documents the detrimental health effects suffered by children held in ‘‘secure care’’ rooms, ranging from anxiety, depression and panic, to paranoia and psychosis.
The report also includes findings in the field of neuroscience that state solitary confinement can disrupt brain activity and potentially lead to changes in the structure of the brain. It also increases the risk of self-harm.
Oranga Tamariki’s deputy chief executive of youth justice, Allan Boreham, says his organisation uses the term ‘‘secure care’’ to describe lockable cells and a communal area inside residences and youth justice facilities.
‘‘We only place teenagers in secure care when it is absolutely necessary, that is when they pose an immediate risk to themselves or others or are likely to abscond.’’
He says ‘‘secure’’ is not used for punishment and any stay longer than 72 hours must be approved by a Youth Court judge.
Boreham says the royal commission is hearing from people who spent time in state institutions between 1950 and 1999 and there had been changes since. They include those in ‘‘secure’’ now being able to do school work and skills training.
He says those in ‘‘secure’’ are able to interact with staff during the day, and depending on their security requirements, they can also interact with other children and young people in the unit.
But he says Oranga Tamariki has no plans to phase its use out as it is likely ‘‘there will be a need to place young people in secure care from time to time for their safety and that of others’’.
Boreham suggests Shalev’s finding of an increase in the use of ‘‘secure’’ could be down to a 2019 legislation change that saw 17- and 18-year-olds come under the care of Oranga Tamariki.
‘‘It must be remembered that young people are admitted to youth justice residences for serious criminal charges, often relating to violence. Our residences are intended to be rehabilitative, but they must also be safe.’’
Boreham says the institutions are audited and regularly visited by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office.
Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft describes the use of ‘‘secure’’ as ‘‘Dickensian’’.
He says Oranga Tamariki residences should be closed down and replaced with community-based homes, and youth justice residences should be scaled down.
‘‘At the heart of this is the practice of segregating kids from the community and aggregating them in large groups who are also experiencing challenging situations. It’s a totally ineffective and outdated response which history will judge us harshly for if we continue to use.’’
Shalev told the Sunday Star-Times she supports an end to the use of ‘‘secure care’’ – a term she describes as a contradiction. ‘‘I see the ‘secure’ but I don’t see the ‘care’ so much.’’
She says while children in secure are allowed out of their cells, the area resembles a waiting room.
‘‘I think Oranga Tamariki needs to move away from the semantic issues and focus on the substance and the substance is those secure rooms are distressing, they’re psychologically harmful, simple as that.’’
‘‘I don’t want to exaggerate, but I felt as if some of these children were being prepared for life in an adult prison in a segregation unit.’’
She has been watching witnesses, such as Wiffin, giving evidence to the royal commission online and says their experiences of the trauma suffered in secure is further evidence the practice should be stopped.
Shalev says the evidence before the royal commission is ‘‘extremely valuable’’ and praised survivors for sharing their stories.
‘‘I hope it’s not just another inquiry where people say ‘how shocking’ and ‘we need to move on’. I really hope that people will make the link between those practices and what is happening now, and I do hope there is a proper shake-up to the system.’’
‘‘It’s a totally ineffective and outdated response which history will judge us harshly for if we continue to use.’’ Andrew Becroft Children’s Commissioner
Knowing Oranga Tamariki still locks children and young people in cells angers survivors such as Keith Wiffin. ‘‘It’s heartbreaking for all us survivors of historical abuse to find out that essentially nothing has really improved and the practices that were going on in the 70s when I was a ward of the state are still happening.’’
Lawyer Anne Toohey is assisting the commission. In her opening address she reminded commissioners of the testimony they had received from prisoners who had been wards of the state in childhood.
‘‘We have noticed a trend, that those people who committed more serious offences, often have had extensive periods of ‘secure’ in children’s homes in their childhood.’’
One witness is now an adult and is serving a lengthy prison sentence for abduction and rape.
Toohey said that, as a 13-year-old, the man was subjected to 320 days of solitary confinement over a 563-day period inside a state-run institution.
‘‘The trajectory from solitary confinement to serious offending is one we intend to continue to investigate,’’ Toohey said.
Survivors of abuse in state care have detailed their experiences of secure. One was just eight years old when he was put in a segregated cell or ‘‘seclusion’’ on arrival at a boys’ home.
Segregated cells were often the setting of horrific sexual abuse and violence.
Andrew Meadows was sent to O¯ wairaka Boys Home on two occasions as a 14- and 15-year-old. Both times his stays began with a period in a segregated cell.
‘‘They treated us like criminals, putting us in a prison cell, with few rights. My time in secure was traumatic, and I was sexually abused … The secure cell was a small cell, with a bare concrete floor, with steel beds attached to the wall.’’
Gwyneth Beard was sexually abused by a family friend and her friend’s father. She was also beaten by her mother and would run away from home regularly. Sometimes she would live in a car.
As a 12-year-old old she was taken to Christchurch’s Strathmore Girls’ Home.
‘‘I was this little girl who was locked up in a cell for long periods with no contact overnights. A little
girl locked up in a cell.’’
She told the commission that every time she ran away, she was returned by the police and subjected to a stay in secure care and a vaginal examination, ostensibly to check for sexually transmitted diseases.
Dr Morgan Francis Fahey carried out the examination. He also sexually abused her. He was later convicted of sexually assaulting adult patients and jailed.
The experience put Beard off getting smear tests later in life.
‘‘Children should not be locked up. You would not be locked up in your own house, so why should the Government be allowed to lock you up in a cell for weeks on end?’’
It’s not known if the royal commission will make findings relating to children being locked in cells inside Oranga Tamariki institutions today.
In April, the Government narrowed the commission’s scope, removing a requirement that would have seen it make findings on the current climate inside state institutions. Critics, including human rights lawyer Sonja Cooper, have said the move will silence some survivors.
Wiffin says the commission will have already gathered information on isolation cells, and he’s confident the commissioners will address it in their findings.
‘‘It is very important we seize the opportunity to do something for victims of historical abuse now, and that we work for better outcomes for those in care today.’’