About Spit hoods

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A spit hood is a mesh fabric device that conceals the head of a restrained person. They have been implicated in numerous deaths in custody here and overseas. Even when they don’t kill, spit hoods pose a grave threat to wellbeing and dignity.

Spit hoods are legal in every state and territory except South Australia. Internationally, spit hoods have been reported in violation of:

• the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• the Convention Against Torture;
• the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), and;
• the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty

Spit hoods are used in policing, prisons and medical settings across Australia. Their use has also been reported in immigration detention centres.

In 2021 South Australia became the first, and so far the only, Australian jurisdiction to prohibit the use of spit hoods in law. Fella’s Bill followed five years of family and community campaigning after Wayne Fella Morrison (a Wiradjuri, Kokatha and Wirangu man) died in custody after being spit hooded, cuffed and placed face down in the prone position in the back of a transport van with eight officers inside. 

Since then, spit hoods have been further implicated in serious injury and deaths in custody in Queensland, the Northern Territory, Australian Capitol Territory and Western Australia, and have been recorded in use against children as young as 12 years old.

Join us in our call for a comprehensive legislated spit hoods ban in every state and territory. Sign up for future updates. See our briefing note on why and how spit hoods must be banned by law, everywhere and for everyone