‘Pack em in like sardines’: Little compassion for youth detainees
Compassion for teens locked up in an overcrowded Cairns watch house has been in short supply from crime-impacted Far North residents that have had a gut full. WHAT YOU SAID
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COMPASSION for teens locked up in an overcrowded Cairns watch house has been in short supply from crime-impacted Far North residents.
On Wednesday it was reported by this masthead young offenders were sleeping four to a cell in the Cairns watch house, according to a youth worker, due to Townsville’s Cleveland Youth Detention Centre operating at maximum inmate capacity.
While there has been a suggestion from advocates the situation could be in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Children, Cairns Post readers took an unsympathetic view of the situation.
While some readers called for a Cairns youth detention centre, Phil Moody recognised being locked up was designed as a form of punishment.
“Welcome to reality, the more uncomfortable the better. It’s not a five-star hotel,” he said.
Many including Clint Wilkinson suggested relocation sentencing out bush to curb increasing crime rates.
“How about the government start buying back our cattle stations (from) foreign investors and run them as a juvenile correctional facility but still running cattle and get the ringers to teach them a thing or two,” he said.
Mark Taylor reckons national service was the best way forward.
“Time to be rounding up all the troubled kids and put them into the military. All of them. First offence warning, second offence military, minimum five years,” he said.
“Learn life skills and respect better prepare them for life.”
Sadly Colleen King said the watch house was “probably better than their home conditions” while Victoria Hockings came down hard.
“Pack em in like sardines,” she said.
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Originally published as ‘Pack em in like sardines’: Little compassion for youth detainees
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