Spit hoods continue to be used in prisons around the country, despite some states banning their use and the controversial restraints being implicated in a number of deaths in custody.
Spit hoods are mesh face coverings used by police and in places of detention ostensibly as “safety hoods” or to prevent spitting and the spread of transmissible diseases.
The use of spit hoods on people in custody has been highly controversial in Australia and around the world, and according to Australian Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, they bring “significant risks of injury and death”.
While they are typically used under the guise of preventing the spread of transmissible diseases, a recent review by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) found they were largely ineffective in doing so, and the risks of using them outweighed any potential benefits.
Despite these findings, spit hoods are still allowed to be used in prisons in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory has also recently reversed a ban on the use of spit hoods on children in youth detention centres.
The use of spit hoods in other states and territories is banned.
The NSW government legislated a ban on the use of spit hoods in any setting in 2023, acknowledging that they can “cause trauma, injury or death to the wearer”.
The use of spit hoods in prisons is an “outdated practice that does not align with community expectations about the treatment of persons in places of detention”, the statement government.
Most police forces around the country have also banned the use of spit hoods.
Despite some state governments acknowledging the risks associated with spit hoods, some of the largest in the country continue to back their use in prison.
A spokesperson for the Victorian government said spit hoods were allowed to be used as a protective measure rather than a disciplinary one, while a Western Australian government spokesperson said they are used “infrequently” and for the “minimum amount of time necessary to manage the risk of injury and or disease”.
The Queensland Inspector of Detention Services states that spit hoods should never be used on people in prison, but they are still available in the state, and were used 122 times in 2021–22.
A Queensland Corrective Services spokesperson said that spit hoods are a “risk mitigation tool” that can be used on adults in prison “to protect officers from being spat on, bitten and potentially exposed to transmittable diseases”.
A number of recent coronial inquests into deaths in custody have looked into the use of spit hoods in prisons and called for this to be outlawed.
Selesa Tafaifa, a 44-year-old woman of Samoan heritage, died at Townsville Women’s Correctional Centre in 2021, after having a spit hood applied to her following a prolonged physical interaction with prison officers.
The inquest was told that Tafaifa was heard saying that the spit hood was “suffocating” her and that she could not breathe.
A coronial inquest into her death last year found that there was not enough evidence to say that the use of the spit hood contributed to her death, but that their use in prisons should be reconsidered.
Late last year a Northern Territory coroner urged its government to ban the use of spit hoods, as part of an inquest into the death of a First Nations man in Alice Springs in 2023.
The man, who had an alcohol use disorder and a cognitive impairment, had a spit hood applied to him while he was in hospital under guard.
The Coroner found that while there was no evidence that the spit hood contributed to the man’s death, its use would have been distressing to a dying and vulnerable man.
The Coroner said that evidence of the risk of transmissible diseases was “insufficient to justify the use of spit hoods in a hospital or any other setting”.
