Government hides more than 200 pages of youth detention review

The public will be left guessing about the full details of shocking allegations of mistreatment of young people in Queensland's youth detention centres.

The Queensland government released the Independent Review of Youth Detention report on Wednesday into allegations of shocking treatment of young inmates dating back to 2013 and a 17-year-old in an adult facility.

Large parts of the report, including names, numbers of beds and photographs, were redacted.Credit: Felicity Caldwell

But hundreds of pages have been redacted.

Those include the numbers of people in youth detention, six chapters detailing specific cases, the physical size of the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and the numbers of beds in units.

Pages 308 to 552 - the chapters detailing specific youth - are completely redacted and sections have been blanked out on other pages.

A chapter detailing issues with the transition of 17-year-olds from adult prisons into youth centres is also missing sections.

The heading "Capacity concerns" is followed by a blanked-out section and then the words: "That is a sobering statistical prediction" immediately afterwards.

"It could be inferred that there could not have been any significant consideration of the potential impact of the implementation of robust policies around alternatives to youth detention before concluding that more youth detention centre beds will be needed in the foreseeable future," the report reads.

It even appears the report's authors - Commissioners Kathryn McMillan, QC, and Professor Megan Davis - expected their investigations into the specific cases would be seen by others.

The authors warned the report contained several confronting images and provided phone numbers for agencies such as Lifeline as a result of any emotional distress caused to people from reading it.

"All faces in the photographs have been blurred and all identities have been anonymised in the report. That was considered necessary to ensure that all individuals involved are protected whilst at the same time permitting the report's public release," they wrote.

However, recommendations that refer to the blanked-out cases remain.

Much of the report relates to international law, theories of youth justice and comparison between the states.

It also compares with Queensland detention with detention in other Australian states, Belgium and Canada.

The review was commissioned following media reports of incidents from 2013, 2014 and early 2015.

Shadow Attorney-General Ian Walker called the report a "dud".

"This committee has been unable to form a view of whether there's maltreatment of children in the centres at all," Mr Walker said.

"This report is heavily redacted.

"You would have thought an open and accountable report is one that you would read without stacks of blanked-out pages."

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said the redacted report ensured it complied with legislation.

"It also ensures confidential safety and security information is not released, which could compromise the operation of youth detention and corrective services facilities," she said.

The government committed $6.2 million and committed to implement the 83 recommendations from the Independent Review of Youth Detention.

The government said the review found the incidents, which received widespread media coverage, were not sufficient to support a finding of systemic mistreatment of young people.

"We asked the reviewers to investigate not just those particular incidents but also to look at the operational capacity of the centres and our practices to identify whether there were any systemic failings in the systems and also recommendations as to how we may improve going forward," Ms D'Ath said.

Ms D'Ath said the government had not waited for two reports to be finalised to take action, making changes across the board since coming to power and also at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre.

"In fact, we have already initiated most of the recommendations related to the riot, and as a result have seen a 35 per cent decline in incidents at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre since November," Ms D'Ath said.

The Cleveland centre, in Townsville, experienced a chaotic riot in November 2016, and a separate report found police were not called in early enough and there was inadequate protective equipment for staff.

It also accepted the findings from the review of the Cleveland riot.

An earlier version of the review of the Cleveland riots provided to media was missing a recommendation - to review workplace culture and introduce a "reflective practice style of leadership and management that fosters an openness to feedback".

But Ms D'Ath did not agree there was a toxic work culture at Cleveland.

"People who are proud of what they do, who actually go to work every day wanting to make a difference in the lives of these young offenders," she said.

Ms D'Ath said 53 new staff would be hired, 43 of which would be stationed at youth detention centres.