{{short description|Youth detention centre in Adelaide}} {{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox Prison | prison_name = Magill Youth Training Centre | location = 23 Glen Stuart Road, Woodforde, SA<ref name="LMV">{{cite web|title=Search results for 'Magill Reformatory School' and 'McNally Training Centre' with the following datasets selected – 'Suburbs and Localities' and 'Gazetteer'|url=http://location.sa.gov.au/viewer/|website=Location SA Map Viewer|publisher=South Australian Government|access-date=20 March 2018}}</ref> | image = | pushpin_map = South Australia | pushpin_map_caption = Location in South Australia | coordinates = {{coord|34.907736|S|138.685236|E|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | status = Closed | classification = | capacity = | opened = 1869 | closed = September 2012 | managed_by = | website = | prisoners = |}}
The '''Magill Youth Training Centre''' (more correctly '''Magill Training Centre'''), also known as the '''Boys Reformatory''', '''McNally Training Centre''' and '''South Australian Youth Training Centre''' ('''SAYTC''') since its founding in 1869, was the last iteration of a series of [[reformatories]] or [[youth detention center|youth detention centres]] in [[Woodforde, South Australia]]. The centre came under criticism in the 2000s for "barbaric" and "degrading" conditions and was replaced by a new 60-bed youth training centre at [[Cavan, South Australia|Cavan]] in 2012.
==History== ===1869: First institution=== The first official State institution for children in [[South Australia]], completed in 1869, was the Magill Industrial School, as a home for children who were destitute, neglected, or orphaned,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00864|website=Find & Connect|title=Glossary term: Industrial School (1866–1958)|access-date=20 June 2019}}</ref> and placed in State care, but not yet placed in foster homes or in employment.<ref name=Mullighan/> They had previously been housed in the Grace Darling Hotel in [[Brighton, South Australia|Brighton]].<ref name=MIS>{{cite web|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE00077b.htm|website=Find & Connect|title=Magill Industrial School (1869–1898)|access-date=20 June 2019}}</ref> The Girls' Reformatory, Magill, shared the site from 1881 to 1891 as did the Boys' Reformatory, Magill, from 1869 to 1880. Misbehaving boys in the Industrial School were placed in the Reformatory.<ref name=MIS/>
===1880–1891: The ''Fitzjames''=== Between 1880 and 1891, the boys were moved to a moored [[Prison ship|hulk]] called the '''''Fitzjames''''' at [[Largs Bay, South Australia|Largs Bay]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Boys' Reformatory Hulk, ''Fitzjames'' (1880–1891)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00056|website=Find & Connect|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> and later further up the [[Port River]] (and various other anchorages nearby, depending on the weather<ref name=graveyard/>), with the girls remaining at Magill. The ''Fitzjames'' was a wooden sailing ship built in 1852 which carried more than 1,800 immigrants from England to Australia.<ref name=wayward>{{cite news|title=The Fitzjames: SA's floating prison for wayward teens|url=http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/special-features/in-depth/the-fitzjames-sas-floating-prison-for-wayward-teens/news-story/0ec11349685e6ed09ec1152f0192300a&memtype=anonymous|access-date=27 January 2018|publisher=Adelaide Now}}{{dead link|date=March 2018}}</ref> After leaking badly in 1866 it was declared unseaworthy and condemned and left to rot on the [[Yarra River]] in [[Melbourne]].<ref name=wayward/> It was purchased by the [[South Australian Government]] in 1876 as a [[quarantine]] ship<ref name=graveyard>{{cite web | title=Jervois Basin Ships' Graveyard Maritime Heritage Trail | website=Government of South Australia. Department for Environment and Water | url=https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/topics/heritage/maritime-heritage/visiting-maritime-heritage-places/shipwreck-trails/Jervois_Basin | access-date=22 November 2020}} (See Fact sheet.)</ref> and used to temporarily house immigrants with [[infectious disease]]s. Between 1880 and 1891 the hulk was used to house boys convicted of crimes or determined to be "uncontrollable".<ref name=wayward/> Pumps were operated by the boys for up to three hours a day to expel water that was leaking into the hulk and keep it from sinking. Because of its poor conditions, the hulk became known as "Hell afloat".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Hulk 'Fitzjames'|url=http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/things/the-hulk-fitzjames|website=Adelaidia|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref>
A [[List of South Australian Royal Commissions|Royal Commission]] was ordered into the Destitute Board in 1883, which found the boys at ''Fitzjames'' in "pallid and dull appearance" and conditions described as "depressing" with "wearisome monotony of life", "gross improprieties" between younger children and older youths and officers, "deplorable" education standards and "defects in the dietary and want of open-air exercise".<ref name=wayward/> The Way Commission tabled its report in State Parliament in 1885. The report recommended ''Fitzjames''' immediate closure and relocation of the boys to a land-based facility. Six years later the boys were removed from the ''Fitzjames'' and moved back to the site of the Magill Industrial School.{{cn|date=November 2020}}
The ''Fitzjames'' was towed up the [[Port River]] into the Jervois Basin, where it now rests among a group of other [[scuttled]] ships in the [[Jervois Basin Ships' Graveyard]].<ref name=graveyard/>
===1891–1967=== In 1891 a new Girls' Reformatory was built in [[Edwardstown, South Australia]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Girls' Reformatory, Edwardstown (1891–1898)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00065|website=Find and Connect|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> and the Industrial School was moved into the girls' quarters at Magill, once again sharing the site with the Boys' Reformatory.<ref name=MTC/> The Training School moved to [[Edwardstown, South Australia|Edwardstown]] in 1898 (renamed Glandore in 1949).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00064|website=Find & Connect|title=Edwardstown Industrial School (1898–1949)|access-date=20 June 2019}}</ref>
===1967–2000s=== In 1967 the site was established as the McNally Training Centre, for boys aged 15–18 sentenced by Juvenile Court or being held on remand.<ref>{{cite web|title=McNally Training Centre (1967–1979)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00078|website=Find and Connect|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> Younger boys aged 9–15 were sent to Brookway Park.<ref>{{cite web|title=Brookway Park (1965–1978)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE00058b.htm|website=Find and Connect|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> In 1979 the McNally Training Centre became the South Australian Youth Training Centre (SAYTC) for youths aged between 15 and 18.<ref>{{cite web|title=South Australian Youth Training Centre (1979–1993)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00082|website=Find and Connect}}</ref>
In 1993 the site became the Magill Training Centre<ref name=MTC>{{cite web|title=Magill Training Centre (1993–2012)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00292|website=Find and Connect}}</ref> to house young people aged 10–14, and the boys aged 15–18 were moved to a new purpose-built facility, the Cavan Training Centre.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cavan Training Centre (1993–2012)|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE00213b.htm|website=Find and Connect}}</ref> Young women from the South Australian Youth Remand and Assessment Centre (SAYRAC) were moved to Magill and housed at a separate section of the Centre when SAYRAC closed.<ref name=MTC/>
By the 2000s, the department acknowledged the need for a replacement facility for the ageing institution, and incidents at the facility between 2004 and 2008 were investigated for the [[Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry]] ("the Mullighan Inquiry").<ref name=MTC/>
==Criticisms and controversies== In addition to the criticisms of the ''Fitzjames Reformatory Hulk'' in the Way Commission Report tabled in [[South Australian Parliament]] in 1885, the Adelaide Boys' Reformatory, South Australian Youth Training Centre, McNally Training Centre and Magill Youth Training Centre all received significant public criticism throughout their history. For example, in 1933 a former police superintendent described the then Adelaide Boys' Reformatory as "an institution for bad boys to make others bad."<ref>{{cite news|title=The News, 'Magill Reformatory re condemnatory statements by Mr Duncan Fraser'|agency=The News|date=20 February 1933}}</ref>
The South Australian Children's Welfare and Public Relief Board was aware of sexual abuse at the site in the late 1940s and early 1950s.<ref name=Mullighan>{{Citation | last1=Mullighan |first1=E. P. (Edward Picton) | title=Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry : allegations of sexual abuse and death from criminal conduct presented to the South Australian Parliament by the Hon. E.P. Mullighan QC, Commissioner, Children in State Care Commission of Enquiry| date=31 March 2008 | publisher=Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry |place=Adelaide, South Australia | isbn=978-0-9805000-0-4 |url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20080421022100/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/83541/20080421-1221/mullighaninquiry/CISC%20-%20Complete.pdf|access-date=27 January 2018}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
In 1969, after 10 boys absconded from McNally Training Centre, the superintendent at the time advocated the reintroduction of caning and the Minister of Social Welfare approved the policy, despite objections of the acting director of Social Welfare who held that caning was "degrading" and "contrary to modern methods of treatment of offenders." Boys were placed in "the cabin" or "the dungeon", a solitary confinement cell, for up to 48 hours if they had absconded or were seen as potential absconders.<ref name=Mullighan/> One boy aged 14 held in the centre in the early 1960s reported he was stripped naked and placed in solitary confinement for three days as a punishment for an attempted breakout.<ref name=Mullighan/> By 1983 corporal punishment was prohibited again, although children could still be placed in detention for up to eight hours.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Walsh|first1=Dave|title=Life in Magill Youth Training Centre|url=https://www.weekendnotes.com/magill-youth-training-centre/|website=Weekend Notes|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref>
A Commission of Inquiry was held into Children in State Care and Children on [[Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara|APY Lands]] led by the [[Ted Mullighan|Hon EP Mullighan QC]] and tabled in South Australian Parliament in 2008. The commission heard from ten people held in the Magill Reformatory in 1950s and 1960s who were sexually abused or raped by staff and older boys.<ref name=Mullighan/>
The physical conditions were described as "run down", "appalling", and "a very, very sad place", with cells {{convert|2x3|metres}} in size, and windows too high for small children to see out of.<ref name=Calls/>
==Calls for closure== After a tour of the site by Australia's [[United Nations Youth Australia|Youth Representative to the United Nations]], Chris Varney, in 2009, the centre was described as "the worst of its kind" and a "living human rights abuse".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Emmerson|first1=Russell|title=Magill training centre worst of its kind|url=http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/magill-training-centre-worst-of-its-kind/news-story/fe095083378c1f796e938e4462477fe1|access-date=27 January 2018|publisher=Adelaide Now|date=5 September 2009}}</ref> In 2009 more than 40 welfare groups and individuals including the executive director of the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia and chief executive officer of Anglicare SA signed an open letter to the South Australian Premier calling for a closure of the site for its appalling conditions and contravention of the [[Convention on the Rights of the Child|United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Open letter demands Magill closure|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-08-11/open-letter-demands-magill-closure/1386000|access-date=27 January 2018|publisher=ABC Online|date=13 August 2009}}</ref> The South Australian Guardian for Children described the centre as "barbaric", and "a blight on the state" and the Social Inclusion Commission described the conditions there as "deplorable".<ref name=Calls>{{cite web|last1=Haxton|first1=Nance|title=Calls for youth detention centre in South Australia to be demolished|url=http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2009/s2635485.htm|website=ABC The World Today|access-date=27 January 2018}}</ref> MP [[Mark Parnell]] called it "barbaric" and "degrading".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Parnell|first1=The Hon. Mark.|title=Magill Youth Training Facility|url=https://hansardpublic.parliament.sa.gov.au/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-10-4429|website=The Parliament of South Australia|publisher=South Australian Hansard of Legislative Council|date=23 September 2009|access-date=27 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805131802/https://hansardpublic.parliament.sa.gov.au/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-10-4429|archive-date=5 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Amidst these criticisms, the then South Australian Minister for Families and Communities [[Jennifer Rankine]] described support available for young offenders as "second to none" and a spokesperson for Rankine stated that while "it's clear the Magill Youth Training Centre needs to be replaced in time" that the state budget "does not provide for that and there will be no change of heart".<ref name=Calls/>
The site was closed in 2012, after the announcement of a new $67 million 60-bed facility to be constructed in Cavan to replace the Magill Youth Training Centre and Cavan Training Centre, at [[Cavan, South Australia|Cavan]].<ref name=Rann>{{cite web|last1=Rann|first1=The Hon. M.D.|title=MAGILL YOUTH TRAINING CENTRE|url=https://hansardpublic.parliament.sa.gov.au/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-11-4942|website=The Parliament of South Australia|publisher=South Australian Hansard of House of Assembly|date=23 September 2009|access-date=27 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805131802/https://hansardpublic.parliament.sa.gov.au/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-11-4942|archive-date=5 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{SouthAustralianPrisons}}
[[Category:1869 establishments in Australia]] [[Category:2012 disestablishments in Australia]] [[Category:Defunct prisons in Adelaide]] [[Category:Juvenile detention centres in Australia]]