Inmates have spoken out about the prevalence of drug use at Bimberi as it is revealed there have been five overdose incidents inside the facility since 2012.
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While drug use inside the adult prison system has been under the spotlight in recent months, drug use in juvenile detention has received less attention.
A former detainee spoke of how fellow inmates used drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with boredom inside the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre.
"One day, one of the guards brought in some speed for us," the detainee alleged.
"And sometimes we would have some alcohol brought inside using a plastic water bottle."
The former detainee also described the schemes used by young inmates to smuggle cannabis inside.
"We would get it from visits or dropping tennis balls over the fence. There would be a drop every week.
"We were OK to smoke it as long as it wasn't on camera or anything like that. And sometimes we would get a heads up when our rooms were searched."
Government correspondence seen by The Canberra Times shows there were three overdose incidents inside Bimberi in 2012 and two overdoses in 2013.
It is not known what drugs were involved in the overdose incidents although it is understood each involved prescription medication.
There have been no recorded overdoses inside Bimberi since.
The Community Services Directorate defined a drug overdose as "the accidental or intentional use of a drug or medicine in an amount that is higher than is normally used or prescribed".
"This can be as simple as a person receiving two paracetamol tablets instead of one," a spokeswoman said.
Documents tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly show that, between December 2011 and June 2014, there were six random drug tests performed on Bimberi detainees.
Since 2014 there have been 29 children tested for drugs inside the centre.
A spokesman for the Community Services Directorate confirmed there had been a "very small number" of incidents involving illicit drug use inside the centre since 2008.
"Any indication of drug use is taken very seriously," he said.
"Where there are specific concerns about drug use, individual young people will be tested.
"Sentenced detainees and those on long-term remand orders are also subject to random drug screening."
In 2015 professional services firm KPMG was contracted by the directorate to investigate separate allegations guards had smuggled drugs inside the facility and sold them to children.
"[KPMG] undertook a very forensic review of all the computer systems in Bimberi, they interviewed a range of witnesses," a spokeswoman said following the investigation.
"There were no findings that those allegations were correct, that there had been no drugs taken into Bimberi for sale to residents or former residents and so we believe that the investigation is closed with those findings."
