A serious incident occurred at Bimberi Youth Justice Centre in which two youths and an 18-year-old allegedly assaulted a staff member.
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The Canberra Times has obtained information about the violent incident on May 6 last year, which ended with three employees being taken to Canberra Hospital.
It's understood four employees were stood down pending an investigation, which continues 10 months later, and that no charges have been laid.
The centre's independent official visitor Narelle Hargreaves confirmed the alleged assault when approached on Wednesday.
Community services minister Rachel Stephen-Smith also confirmed there had been an incident.
A source told The Canberra Times the three young people had histories of violent behaviour and one had threatened to assault a manager the day before.
One of the alleged assailants was 18 at the time, but was not transferred to the Alexander Maconochie Centre adult prison as normally occurs after serious breaches, the source said.
"The staff member was beaten to the ground and continued to be kicked and punched for several minutes," they said.
"During the assault the staff member became unconscious.
"The first responding staff member dislocated their shoulder trying to pull the young person off the staff member on the ground.
"It wasn't until other staff came back from lunch that the three young people were restrained.
"The incident should never have happened with the number of residents in the centre being so low at the time.
"The staff member assaulted should never have been left unsupervised and an ambulance should have been called as soon as the incident occurred.
"An ambulance wasn't called for at least 10 minutes."
The source said staff shortages had worsened since the standing down of four employees.
"Some days they only have two youth workers. Staff morale is very low at the moment due to shortages," they said.
"Last Thursday the whole centre needed to be locked down and all visits cancelled for the day due to one young person misbehaving."
Mrs Hargreaves said yesterday staff had been quick to address issues following the incident and detainees told her Bimberi was typically a safe place to stay.
Official visitors are appointed by the ACT attorney-general to safeguard standards of treatment and advocate for the rights of detainees.
Ms Stephen-Smith acknowledged there had been a "serious incident".
"The matter was reported immediately and the incident was referred to ACT Policing, the official visitor and the public advocate," she said.
"The Community Services Directorate is following processes set out in the relevant enterprise agreement to finalise this matter to ensure due process for all parties involved in the incident.
"My interest is in ensuring the safety of young people in Bimberi and the staff who work there, and in allowing the prescribed processes to be finalised.
"It is not appropriate at this point to make further comments about this process while an investigation is ongoing.
"As with all incidents of this nature, policies and procedures related to the incident were reviewed with staff by an external facilitator.
"All available staff attended forums to identify potential improvements in policy and processes resulting from the incident.
"As noted by official visitors, the centre is operating in an efficient and constructive manner and this was an isolated incident."
Ms Stephen-Smith said Bimberi staff were trained to deliver a "trauma-informed response" to the young people in their care.
"The Community Services Directorate takes seriously its obligations to support staff and to equip them with the skills and abilities to deal with the challenging situations that may sometimes arise in a detention centre," she said.
The Canberra Times also contacted ACT Policing for comment.
