Australian Human Rights Commission Current issues and good practices in prison management, 16 November 2023 91. On 10 August 2023, the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Tasmania) also gave evidence before the Inquiry into Tasmanian Adult Prison and Youth Detention Matters, that between 15 February 2023 and 5 August 2023, 236 advocacy requests were made about the ‘use of lockdowns, unitbound practices, isolation of young people, and restricted movements around the [Ashley Youth Detention] centre’.146 92. In October 2023 the Tasmanian Inspector of Custodial Services also noted that ‘[s]taffing shortages seem to be a major reason for the majority of lockdowns in both adult and youth custodial centres’.147 93. In August 2023, the Yoorook Justice Report (Victoria) noted that, during a detention centre visit, Commissioners were ‘disturbed to hear’ from young people about conditions in the centre, including violence by staff and prolonged confinement in cells due to staff shortages.148 Commissioners were told that ‘children and young people in one side of the detention centre they visited had, in the previous two months, only 30 minutes out of their room each day’.149 94. The Yoorook Justice Report (Victoria) recommended the Victorian Government take ‘all legislative, administrative and other steps to implement the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners … including an express prohibition on the use of solitary confinement on children’.150 It also recommended that ‘youth justice centres are adequately funded and properly operated so that the common practice of locking down prisoners in their cells for prolonged periods for administrative or management reasons in violation of their human and cultural rights is ended’.151 95. In September 2023, the South Australian Training Centre Visitor, reported that young people at the Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre had been ‘spending excessive amounts of time in their rooms’ during 2022-2023.152 On one occasion it was confirmed that young people had been subjected to solitary confinement due to staff shortages.153 96. Following the public hearing into conditions in detention in the criminal justice system in September and October 2022, Counsel Assisting the Disability Royal Commission (‘Counsel Assisting’) submitted that, ‘safety and security were the overriding consideration’ regarding decisions to place people with disability into solitary confinement.154 Counsel also acknowledged that the practice had ‘the capacity to result in significant harm and to exacerbate safety issues’,155 and proposed a recommendation that All States and Territory Government should legislate to prohibit solitary confinement and for use of restrictive practices including isolation to be used as 20