Boy who stole chocolate bars held in watchhouse for three weeks

The mother of a teenage boy who spent three weeks in a Queensland watchhouse for “stealing chocolate bars and deodorant” has begged the Premier to move juveniles from maximum security facilities.

But Annastacia Palaszczuk said she had nowhere to move them, so children as young as 10 would remain in the watchhouses.

A mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said her son was traumatised after spending three weeks in a maximum security watchhouse. Credit: Lydia Lynch

According to the state's Public Guardian, there were children in watchhouses "who haven’t accessed any real outdoor air for two weeks or more, and who have little or no access to education".

The mother, whose name cannot be used for legal reasons, told Brisbane Times her 14-year-old son was withdrawn and despondent after spending almost a month locked inside a police watchhouse.

“He wouldn’t talk to me about what it was like in the watchhouse, he was too traumatised,” she told Brisbane Times.

“All he did was steal some chocolate bars and deodorant from the 7-Eleven and he was locked up like a hardened criminal.

“Of course it makes me angry. The government says they are coming in and supporting our children, that is bullshit.”

Ms Palaszczuk said she did not want to see children locked up in watchhouses and had promised to build a 32-bed youth detention centre at Wacol and create 16 more beds at the existing Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.

But on Wednesday, Ms Palaszczuk could not give a time frame, or even a target, for when children would be moved to safer accommodation.

“I would like to let them out if they were going to secure places, we do not have those secure places available,” she said.

“I don’t have the facilities.”

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said young offenders would be moved out of watchhouses within 72 hours and placed in “appropriate accommodation” under a proposal her party would put before the Parliament this week.

“Right now kids are being held for up to 40 days in watchhouses across the state,” she said.

“Juveniles must be held accountable for their crimes, but they belong in dedicated facilities instead of maximum-security police watchhouses designed for adults only.

“If Annastacia Palaszczuk has a decent bone in her body she would back our plans.”

Ms Frecklington said construction on demountable houses at the youth detention centre needed to begin immediately.

But Ms Palaszczuk said temporary accommodation did not meet youth justice design standards and would increase the risk of escape, injury and suicide.

“I will not under any circumstances put these young people in irresponsible temporary accommodation where a young person could commit suicide,” she said.

On Wednesday, there were 75 children in watchhouses across the state.

The catalyst for what lawyers say is a “human rights crisis” was Labor’s decision to move 17-year-olds out of adult prisons and into youth detention centres.

But they did not plan for the influx of 17-year-olds into the youth facilities, which has meant children as young as 10 are being housed in maximum security watchhouses.

Internal briefing by the Youth Justice Department in 2015 warned even without the shift of 17-year-olds from adult to juvenile facilities, "there was a forecast need for an additional 20 beds by 2020 and for 50 beds every seven years after that".