A WA parliamentary question on notice regarding alleged underage prisoners, their age verification processes, and the Department of Corrective Services' actions in response to these allegations, particularly concerning Indonesian prisoners.

AnsweredQoN 7876Legislative Assembly
Asked
1 May 2012
Portfolio
Corrective Services

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Minister's answer to my Question on Notice No. 5151 on 17 May 2011, where he stated that he is aware of multiple cases where current prisoners have alleged to be under-age, but that all cases (as at 18 April 2011) have been re-confirmed as at least 19 years of age or older by the Department in consultation with the Australian Federal Police. In relation to this, I ask:
(a) exactly how many cases of alleged under-age prisoners was the Minister made aware of, and on what dates; and
(b) will the Minister please detail exactly (and table all documents showing) how the Department re-confirmed that all current prisoners were at least 19 years of age, including birth certificates, official translations, personal visits to families, etcetera?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
12 June 2012
Responded by
Minister for Corrective Services
Response time
42 days
(a) Since 9 September 2010 the Department of Corrective Services has on seven separate occasions made a total of 34 requests to the Australian Federal Police to verify the ages of Indonesian prisoners.
9 September 2010 (one request)
10 November 2010 (one request)
15 November 2010 (12 requests)
22 March 2011 (two requests)
15 April 2011 (13 requests)
22 August 2011 (three requests)
23 August 2011 (two requests)
(b) The Department holds prisoners on warrants issued by the courts and is bound by the age on that warrant with regard to whether a person is placed in an adult or juvenile facility. When suspicions are raised that a particular individual may be under the age of 18 years, the Department liaises with the prisoner with the aid of an interpreter and notifies the Indonesian Consulate and the prisoner's lawyer. The correct process of applying for an age determination hearing through the courts is outlined to all parties. As the legal authority, the court makes a determination and the Department responds accordingly.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more