New breach of bail laws driving watch-house violence in Cairns, youth advocates say

Youth advocates say they know what's behind the series of shocking attacks on officers in the Cairns watch-house.

The ‘violent detention cell’ or ‘padded cell’ at the Cairns police watch house has been used to hold children.

Youth advocates say breach of bail laws are putting pressure on police watch houses, with troubling consequences.

It comes after a series of incidents in the Cairns watch house in recent months, including a 17-year-old who allegedly tried to bite an officer before spitting in his face on Wednesday; a 24-year-old man who allegedly assaulted two female officers a week prior, and a 16-year-old boy who police allege threw urine on staff on Easter Saturday.

The Queensland Police Union want urgent action, with QPU vice president Shane Prior previously telling the Cairns Post overcrowding at the Cairns watch house was putting officers, staff and inmates at risk.

Experts say the problem comes from the high numbers of minors ending up in custody.

This in turn is the consequence of new bail laws, they say, which are putting more young people in custody and eventually leading to more crime.

The new laws making breach of bail a criminal offence were passed in March last year after a long campaign by the LNP opposition.

Labor had initially ruled out introducing the offence, arguing it would not be effective.

The visitor entrance and exit to the Cairns watch-house located between the Cairns Police Station and Cairns Courthouse. Picture: Brendan Radke

It means that now, any alleged breach of bail found by the police lands the potential offender back in a watch house while they await further sentence by a magistrate.

A total of 916 minors across the state have been charged with bail offences in the last 12 months under police operation Whiskey Unison.

Ashya Kerr from the Justice Reform Initiative said “more minors are getting arrested for mere breaches of bail”.

She said often these were “technical breaches for things for things they otherwise would not have been in custody including not living at a prescribed address, drunk parents, community infighting and breaching curfew”.

Ms Kerr added that she believed in many cases young people were being denied police bail because they could not show they had a safe home to return to – and this too was contributing to higher numbers in both watch-houses and Cleveland Detention Centre.

Katherine Hayes, CEO of the Youth Advocacy Centre, said she believed there has been a “hardening of magistrates” feeling under pressure from anti-crime community sentiment.

Katherine Hayes, CEO youth advocacy centre. Photo Steve Pohlner

She also said the increase in child incarceration – of which has Queensland has the highest rate in the country – was also the result of “the policing approach” and in particular Taskforce Guardian, which arrested 968 young people in the last year.

“The problem is that large numbers are being arrested, but the government has not increased rehabilitation services once these kids are arrested, so they just end up cycling in and out of the justice system” Ms Hayes said.

Ms Hayes says a psychiatrist who works in the field told her that after 24 hours in a watch-house “child’s mental health starts to deteriorate significantly which exacerbates their trauma which takes them further from being rehabilitative, and they come out angry.”

Ms Kerr from the Justice Reform Initiative said she would like to see residential support services.

“Locking young people up in watch houses isn’t addressing the drivers of why people are on the streets”.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said “For the first time in Queensland’s history, under this Labor Government, breach of bail for young offenders is an offence under the bail act”.

“The government makes no excuses for its strong laws when it comes to youth offenders.

Community safety comes first. If a young offender is required to be detained in custody then that is exactly what will happen”.

Originally published as New breach of bail laws driving watch-house violence in Cairns, youth advocates say