A video snippet of child abuse history sanctioned & perpetrated by the West Australian Dept for Community Welfare. (now Child Protection).
Until the mid-1980s, the Department for Child Protection operated various gulag-grade boys institutions across Perth. The worse of these being Riverbank Treatment Centre for Boys and Hillston Anglican Farm for Boys. The so called 'welfare staff' managing these institutions were slyly known as "Group Workers". The cells housing the children were known as "cabins".
HILLSTON ANGLICAN FARM FOR BOYS (Age range 10 - 17 years)
Hillston was originally built by the Anglican church circa 1950s as a boot camp / farm for delinquent and homeless boys. In the 1960s the West Australian Government (Child Welfare) assumed control to essentially maintain the boot camp / borstal function.
Welfare modified Hillston to a minimum security jail, where boys as young as 10 years were released from a cell in the morning to endure a regimental program until 8.30 in the evening when they would be returned to their cell.
Cells (housed in 3 corridors - Raven, Falcon & Eagle) were furnished only with mattress and bedding. None of the cells were equipped with toilets - boys who requested toilet access during the 10 hour nightly lock down did so at risk of being punished. To signal a toilet request during nights, boys had to slide the end of their towel under the cell door and wait until the towel's edge was spotted by a Group Worker.
Typical forms of abuse included: physical, psychological & emotional abuse. The physical included head punching, slapping, pinching of flesh, hair and ear pulling, body slams against walls and floors.
The psychological involved, semi-starvation, demeaning / degrading work i.e. scrubbing toilet bowls with a toothbrush, confinement to punishment cells for several days - a punishment cell was modified to to deprive the child of electric and natural light. Children would be stripped naked with bedding / mattress removed from the cell. Food was either rationed or denied during confinement. During colder months these conditions were especially cruel leaving the naked ravenous child shivering.
Emotional abuse involved the wholesale deprivation of a nurturing environment for children. Children were always summoned or addressed by surnames, NEVER by first names.
CONTRACTING OUT ABUSE
Occasionally more devious Group Workers recruited older Wards to assault and harrass younger Wards. This way the Group Worker could exact sadistic pleasure without risk of exposure or the inconvience of denying allegations.
Hillston continued up until the early 1980s, when it was decommissioned. Government demolished Hillston in the late 1990s along with the physical evidence as represented by the structures eg. the cells.
RIVERBANK TREATMENT CENTRE FOR BOYS (Age range 12 - 18 years)
Riverbank functioned as a 'maximum security' jail for juveniles, many of whom were unplaceable ("placement problems") in the community due to a damaging history of abuse and neglect.
Not unlike Hillston, the Skinner type operant conditioning program of Riverbank was to degrade and deprive the inmates from the moment of morning cell release till evening lock up at 8.30.
The philososphy of both Hillston and Riverbank seems to be boys (most of whom were either orphaned or came from wrecked families) could be straightened out by subjecting them to a controlled abusive dehumanized environment where every boy was 'treated' the same regardless of history, race, needs and disabilties.
The Riverbank experiment failed drastically with many boys 'regressing' to adult institutions, committing suicide or losing themselves in a self-destructive haze of drug and alcohol abuse.
Donald Andrews was the Riverbank Superintendant during the late 70s, early 80s. This bespectacled sociopath preferred to hide in his office in the secure Admin block while his idiot minions (Group Workers) brutally hounded the Wards from dawn to dusk in accordance with the 'Treament Program'.
Riverbank continues to operate today, albeit with a different approach to 'rehabilitation'.
Never forget, never forgive!
fpanaia@gmail.com
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Corporal Punishment in the U.S.by jaychar2686,391 views
Nver forgive, never forget.
Absolutely.
I am so sorry for the hurt and pain you have suffered, and continue to suffer.
Thank you for telling the truth in this film, it
helps to balance all the lies and spin.
Barnett is another dog.
oopsydahlia 2 years ago 2
@oopsydahlia - hey thanx
yes absolutely Barnett is a mongrel, he's just another slug in a long long list of slugs we have had to suffer.
Stay tuned for another upload shortly FP
fpanaia 2 years ago