The last of the detainees were forced off the roof at Banksia Hill after a 14-hour stand-off.Credit:9 News Perth
One detainee managed to unlock more than half of the 90 detainees at Banksia Hill Detention Centre on May 9,plunging the facility into a lockdown as the escapees rioted.
Some lit fires,others hurled projectiles at staff and police from the roof.
McGowan said the damage was worsened because detainees stopped fire trucks from entering the facility and the extra water needed to put out the more intense fires had caused significant water damage.
“The fires kept erupting the next day I’m advised,” he said.
The fixes have been made more complicated because the detainees targeted the facility’s control room,which contained expensive technical equipment including computers used to operate the facility’s CCTV.
The extra work will mean significant delays to more than $50 million worth of work that has been ongoing at the facility to harden up cells for problem detainees and building of a new crisis care unit and Aboriginal services unit.
The hardened-up cells were meant to be completed by the middle of this year.