National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds declares new $100m kids’ jail a waste of taxpayer funds

Perth’s new $100 million children’s jail is a waste of taxpayer money that will do nothing to make the community safer, National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds has declared.

The WA Government revealed last week the whopping price tag for the new high-security juvenile detention centre being built alongside Banksia Hill to replace the controversial Unit 18 section inside the adult prison.

But Ms Hollonds says keeping children in jails or police watchhouses is “a kind of madness” and flies in the face of evidence about what stops young people offending.

It costs more than $1 million a year to keep one child in jail, she will tell the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“Currently we are building several new children’s prisons – last week we heard the new one in Perth will cost at least $100 million,” she will say, according to a draft of her speech.

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