If you thought seeing staff tackling, headlocking and manhandling a boy at a Care and Protection residence was bad, you should see what happens inside a Youth Justice facility, says a social worker with nearly two decades of experience in the sector.
The insider, who came to Newsroom on the condition of anonymity, works at Korowai Manaaki Youth Justice residence in Auckland, which houses up to 46 young people.
She estimates more than one restraint a week goes wrong on children at the unit, but believes fewer than half of these are reported. Some incidents are so bad, young people are ending up in hospital.
“Bullying, intimidation, dysfunction, power, control and nepotism are rife,” she tells Newsroom about Korowai Manaaki.
“Under the child protection protocol (CPP), you must, if you see something, report it. You don’t need a manager’s permission to do that. But when you’ve got a manager that says not to report anything without telling him and then he says we’ll manage it internally and nothing happens, well … you don’t know if he’s eliminated it, erased it [CCTV Footage] or taken it off the system and put it in a folder so nobody can find it.
“Our young people have faced enough without coming to a facility for more.”
Just a fortnight ago, she says it took more than a day for staff to report an incident in which a boy was “smashed in the face” by staff.
“They refused his medical treatment. From what I understand, the case managers fought for it, but CPP wasn’t initiated until more than 24 hours later. They had to get permission from the residence manager for it.”
In another incident, she says a girl was hospitalised as a result of a restraint, while another girl sent accounts of assaults she had witnessed and assaults that had happened to her to authorities “and nothing happened”.
She also claims staff have bought gifts for young people “to not disclose the assaults on them”.
Our source says even though the use of “suicide gowns” has been banned as degrading to young people’s mental health and strip searches require the approval of Oranga Tamariki’s chief executive or deputy chief executive, some staff, with the unit manager’s permission, have used them “and also undertaken a full strip search and been told not to document doing them or their use of”.
Asked why this was happening she says: “Everyone is scared of the power of the agency [OT], everyone wants to look good, it’s a perpetual cycle of cover.”
The union for public service workers (PSA), which includes youth residence staff, has released its own statement voicing concern at a culture that discourages reporting of incidents.
“[The PSA] remain concerned about vicarious trauma and constant exposure to high risk and its effect on wellbeing. The lack of SOSHI [safety incident reporting system] reporting within Oranga Tamariki is in itself a serious health and safety risk, and PSA has concern that the corporate culture dissuades the reporting of serious risks and near-misses.”
Te Puna Wai in the spotlight
There are four Youth Justice secure facilities around the country, where children from the age of 14 who have been arrested, remanded or sentenced for criminal charges are held and educated onsite.
In addition to Auckland’s Korowai Manaaki, there is Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo in Christchurch, while the other two are in Palmerston North and Rotorua.
Since 2015, Te Puna Wai’s operations manager has been Russell Caldwell – the same man who ran Australia’s infamous Don Dale youth detention facility.
Don Dale was the subject of a huge ABC expose in which young detainees were found to have been stripped naked and tear gassed by staff. Caldwell was the superintendent in charge of Don Dale during this time.
Footage also went around the world showing a shirtless boy strapped to a chair by his hands, feet and neck and a white hood covering his face.
While working at Te Puna Wai, Caldwell was confirmed for a management role at Christchurch Men’s Prison, but was subsequently rejected for the job after the Don Dale revelations came to light. Caldwell remained in his role managing Te Puna Wai.
By now, The Australian government had launched a Royal Inquiry as a result of the expose. In the final report, released in 2019, Caldwell admitted a lack of, and inaccurate, record keeping, and incidents not being passed further up, including handwritten complaints from children describing their treatment.
Newsroom understands Caldwell was recently seconded into a more senior role in Oranga Tamariki as acting national operations manager for all Youth Justice residences.
Leaked internal documents have also been sent to Newsroom showing Te Puna Wai leadership requesting more training for staff in the use of mechanical restraints, including spit masks and handcuffs. Newsroom understands the request came directly from Caldwell.
The document is a learning and development plan. While it is from a few years ago, a former staffer supplied it to Newsroom because Caldwell was in charge then.
“It is indicative of his approach. It is very punitive,” says the former staffer.
The use of solitary confinement in youth residences has also been in the spotlight recently.
In our Newsroom investigation into Oranga Tamariki last year, senior workers described a common situation that would arise in Youth Justice facilities where staff who wanted an easier shift would arbitrarily describe a resident as ‘rumpty’ – a code word of sorts – in order to lock them in solitary confinement for the night.
Anyone who challenged these types of practices ran into trouble.
“One team leader who challenged management about the use of the secure units was gone within two weeks,” another insider says.
“In my opinion, Caldwell is running Te Puna Wai like it’s Don Dale.”
A combination of hiring big, strong new staff who received inadequate training meant they would often use restraint much earlier and improperly, for which they’d receive praise and give the impression to newer staff that that was their first port of call, he said.
The lack of training meant they weren’t even trying to use de-escalation tactics.
Seventy-two staff left Te Puna Wai – there were 80 employment investigations – in the two years since Caldwell took charge there.
Earlier this year, Newshub Nation revealed children in Youth Justice residences were being strip-searched, a practice now being “phased out” following the media coverage. Three-quarters of the searches in the six months to January this year were carried out at Te Puna Wai.
What’s more, the manager in charge of the Care and Protection Residence at the centre of Newsroom’s whistleblower video in which a boy is manhandled by staff had been seconded to the role from Te Puna Wai, where she has now returned to a leadership role.
Another insider contacted Newsroom about the issues within Te Puna Wai and its management, saying he gave up trying to speak up about the unit more than a year ago, “as did at least one other colleague”.
Prison for kids
Most of the young people – 80 percent according to most recent figures – in Youth Justice residences are on remand for charges faced in the Youth Court, which usually means they are awaiting sentencing.
Some are also there after being arrested but yet to be charged in the Youth Court.
At Korowai Manaaki there are also six beds dedicated to young people who have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Insiders have told Newsroom that sometimes children who haven’t committed a crime, who are self-harming or have high mental health needs but have nowhere else to go are also present in the unit.
This means young people convicted of murder could be sharing meals, schooling and shared spaces with a child who has committed a non-violent crime – or no crime at all.
Our insider believes it’s harder for the public to feel sympathy for children in Youth Justice because they’ve often committed a crime (unlike children held in Care and Protection residences). She says people need to remember many of those in the facilities have ongoing mental health and disability challenges, including FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder) and ADHD.
“Most have come from deeply traumatic backgrounds, and just like the kids in Care and Protection residences, they need specialist care from trained psychologists, teachers and importantly social workers who know how to work with the rangatahi and their families.”
Māori are disproportionately affected, making up 70 percent of the Youth Justice population.
Rangatira have repeatedly called for an overhaul of both the Youth Justice and Care and Protection residences, and a ‘by Māori, for Māori’ solution. Among them is Lady Tureiti Moxon, who said last week: “We want to look after our children ourselves, and we want the capability and the support and the sharing of resources and power to enable us to do that.”
Mates hiring mates
Our insider says there is a staff member working at Korowai Manaaki whose name has come up more than once in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse; that there are others who have been through the courts; and again, allegations of nepotism.
“My biggest concern as a social worker is how much muscle is being hired, and that our young people are getting hurt by unprofessional, unqualified, untrained and unsupported staff.”
She says it’s an ongoing systemic problem throughout all of the Youth Justice units.
“To them, the facility needs to look good at all costs, everyone wants to look good in the eyes of head office. So that means not narking on your mates, looking like a solid team and not having to escalate things up the chain.”
Around 150 staff work at Korowai Manaaki and our insider says in the last 12 months they have hired around 50 casuals, some with questionable backgrounds.
As an example, one worker who pleaded guilty to a charge of assault on a child at Korowai Manaaki remains employed there, she says.
She says others being hired include ex-Serco staff who “wouldn’t get a job at Corrections but their buddies are hiring them at Korowai and other Youth Justice residences.”
(Serco is the private prison company that lost its contract to run Mt Eden prison after revelations surfaced about prison violence.)
“We don’t have qualified staff who understand trauma-informed care, they don’t understand therapeutic practice. They don’t understand how to work by strengthening the engagement with our young people. Their induction to the organisation is minimal.”
She says in the early 2000s when Korowai Manaaki was first set up, 75 percent of floor staff were qualified social workers and 25 percent unqualified, but now that is reversed – and that good staff are now leaving “in their droves”.
“The team leaders at Korowai Manaaki used to all be qualified staff – they were social workers, teachers, psychologists, but they were all disbanded.”
A “boys’ club” atmosphere has emerged, she tells Newsroom, with one group of staff essentially controlling the residence.
“They’ve even named their group the Korowai Manaaki Tongan Association, and made their own sweatshirts and mugs.”
She says many staff, including herself, feel it’s intimidating when they wear the sweatshirts on the floor, especially considering high number of tamariki Māori.
The claim nepotism is rife in other facilities throughout the country too has been made repeatedly to Newsroom for more than two years. Insiders from the Christchurch youth residence sector say interviews for new staff are given to “mates” of the managers.
“It is common knowledge and discussed all the time but everyone is afraid to speak up.”
Fox minding the henhouse
In the year to June 2019, a total of 1463 grievances were lodged by children and young people staying in Oranga Tamariki’s Youth Justice and Care and Protection residences. Of these, 544 were justified – the majority of those upheld. They covered complaints concerning physical, verbal or ‘other’ staff behaviour.
Our insider at Korowai Manaaki says the number of reported grievances should be double that.
“There is resistance to completing paperwork to tell the true story and to be honest and transparent, because they’re part of a group that, again, it’s about looking good for the management.”
The bigger problem, she says, involves who carries out the investigation when there is a report of a restraint gone wrong or other concerning incidents.
“Whether an incident gets sent up the chain is dependent on who is doing the investigations, and because they’re using their own staff to do these it’s not transparent.
“Previously it used to be a person independent to the unit and the staff, but now the team leader does it for their team.
“It’s the fox minding the henhouse.”
The worst part, she says, is that no one in authority seems to do anything to address concerns when they’re raised: “No one has done anything this whole time yet the authorities have known about all of this.”
