Rangeview Remand Centre

Rangeview Juvenile Remand Centre, in Murdoch, was established in 1994 as a government-run detention facility for up to 80 male and female youth. By October 2012, the young people at Rangeview were transferred to the Banksia Hill Detention Centre. The Rangeview facility re-opened as the Wandoo Reintegration Centre for young adults in November 2012.

Rangeview was established by the government in response to over-crowding in the ageing Longmore Remand and Assessment Centre.

In October 2005, all the girls who had been held at Banksia Hill were transferred to Rangeview. Authorities reported this was because of a sexual encounter between a male and female detainee at Banksia Hill.

The Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services (OICS) reported (2008) on the Rangeview youth detention facility in October 2007. At that time, (p.iii) all girls, on remand and convicted, were held at Rangeview, and 75 percent of the young people at Rangeview were identified as Aboriginal. The OICS report also confirmed (p.1) that all children and young people remanded into custody in Western Australia would be admitted to Rangeview, albeit for a brief period; that Rangeview opened in 1994 with an average length of stay being 3 days, which had risen to 17 days at the time of inspection; and (p.2) that males and females were separated at Rangeview except for ‘a few highly supervised, structured activities’.

In June 2008, the OICS inspected Banksia Hill and made some comments about Rangeview in that report, finding (p.iii) that the decision to transfer girls from Banksia Hill to Rangeview in 2005, had resulted in Rangeview ‘housing sentenced females without the facilities or adequate services to meet their needs’.

By 2012 the decision had been made to remove young people from Rangeview. The transfer of young people to Banksia Hill occurred from September 2012, with the final detainees being transferred on 5 October 2012. The Wandoo Reintegration Facility opened on the Rangeview site in November 2012.