Queensland ranks worst state for youth detention capacity pressure

Queensland’s approach to locking up children and teenagers is at odds with the number of its permanently funded youth detention beds, with the state coming closer than any other to overfilling its centres last financial year.

The state has also reached a new high for the average number of young offenders in detention since 17-year-olds were removed from the adult justice system, while the number under community-based supervision, such as bail or community service orders, also fell.

A still from CCTV footage of a young person being held on the ground in a Queensland youth detention centre, contained in a report.

The details, laid out in a report on government services by the Productivity Commission on Wednesday, come as the state prepares to build two new detention centres despite long-standing plans to keep young people out of such sites.

Despite Queensland locking-up more young offenders than any other state or territory, with an average nightly detention centre population of 274.9 across the 2021-22 financial year, the commission’s report notes the state had only 288 permanently funded beds.

This resulted in a centre utilisation rate of 95.5 per cent, up from 84.8 per cent in the previous financial year and the highest since 2018-19 when 17-year-olds were shifted from the adult to youth justice system.

In NSW and Victoria, which had average nightly youth detention populations of about 186 and 120, a total of 370 and 276 beds were permanently funded in the 2021-22 financial year.

Queensland also had the highest number of young people under community supervision, at 920 — down from 1269 in 2018-19.

Just this month, a magistrate said two teens were held in police watch houses for more than two weeks, breaking police protocol, because the state’s three detention centres were “at capacity”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced a suite of tougher measures in response to the Boxing Day home invasion killing of Emma Lovell in late December, including confirmation the government would expand its youth detention centre network from three to five sites.

These were labelled reactionary measures unlikely to deter offending by experts and those working in the sector who warn about the absence of quick fixes for the issue, and contradicted the government’s own expired youth justice action plan – due to have been updated in 2021.

The plan is built around former police commissioner Bob Atkinson’s “four pillars” approach adopted by the government, which includes seeking to keep children out of court and custody while still protecting the community.

Government measures announced two years ago, and similarly criticised, led to more young people being placed in custody for longer – with most held on remand where many waited longer than their eventual sentences.

In a recent report on the rollout of those measures, Atkinson noted the body of evidence showing young offenders sent to detention — at a significantly higher cost — were generally more likely to reoffend than those given community sentences.

Wednesday’s Productivity Commission report confirmed the state spent almost $219 million across 2021-22 on youth detention services – almost double the 2018-19 figure.

However, the latest Childrens Court of Queensland annual report has warned of a “chronically” understaffed Forensic Child Youth Mental Health Service, which assesses young people for the court and treats them while in detention, on bail, or on other orders.

“It leads to large delays in the resolution of charges and leaves children’s significant mental health issues untreated,” president Deborah Richards wrote in her overview.

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