Drugs are being openly dealt inside Villawood detention centre; makeshift weapons are being manufactured amid intimidation, standover tactics and a “culture of fear”; people are sleeping outside under CCTV cameras for their own safety; and children are being kept from going to school, a scathing report from the independent monitor has found. The commonwealth’s National Preventive Mechanism issued the report based on a three-day visit in March this year. A total of 428 people were held in Villawood at the time, including children.
Some 78 beds were offline because of damage still not repaired from a fire three years ago. Those detained had been in detention for between two days and 11 years. Three people had been held inside Villawood for more than a decade.
Villawood has experienced consistent acts of violence and of self-harm, including numerous suicides. In January, a man died in the centre after being allegedly attacked by another detainee, who was subsequently charged with his murder. The commonwealth ombudsman identified key concerns including the prolonged detention of children, safety concerns, insufficient staffing, and the hazardous damage to buildings.
People detained at Villawood also reported the “free movement” of drugs into and around the centre “alleging that substance use is commonplace and illicit substances are being traded relatively openly”. Some people reported that people who had not used drugs before being detained had become drug users inside Villawood. The monitor found large shards of glass in common areas “a hazard in themselves but which could also be used as weapons”, as well as damage to concrete and brickwork “consistent with sharpening of metal objects, suggesting that some people in detention may be attempting to produce makeshift weapons”.
People were sleeping outside, or in common areas, in Villawood detention centre. Some said they were sleeping outside because air conditioners had been broken and not repaired for months, and it was too hot inside rooms. The NPM report also highlighted parlous staffing levels, exposing both workers and those detained to danger.
During the visit, the NPM “directly witnessed an example of staff failing to intervene to prevent escalation of a serious physical altercation”. Insufficient staffing levels have been a consistent issue at Villawood. A Guardian Australia investigation has previously revealed that Comcare, the federal work safety regulator, issued a direct warning to the department that the “minimalist staffing model” employed by MTC, the US private prison company running detention centres, was endangering staff and detainees.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
