Queensland Government redacts Independent Review of Youth Detention

THE State Government has inexplicably redacted hundreds of pages from a review into youth detention including graphic images of alleged mistreatment, despite the report’s authors wanting them to be shown.

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THE State Government has inexplicably redacted hundreds of pages from the Independent Review of Youth Detention.

Investigations into alleged mistreatment of young offenders have been hidden and “confronting” images of the treatment of young people have been withheld in the heavily redacted report released by Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath today.

One of the terms of reference of the inquiry was to investigate revelations in The Courier-Mail last year that a 17-year-old prisoner in an adult jail had been masked, shackled and left alone in his cell for an hour.

But the government has redacted any reference to the incident from the report.

The report’s authors, Kathryn McMillan QC and Professor Megan Davis, appear to have wanted the public to see graphic images of the treatment of children in youth detention.

“Warning. We would like to warn all readers that this report contains a number of confronting images of young people that may be distressing,” the report states.

“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.”

However all the images have been redacted – despite not containing any identifying information.

Ms D’Ath said in a statement: “The redacted version of the report ensures compliance with various legislation, including the Youth Justice Act 1992, Commissions of Inquiry Act 1950, the Information Privacy Act 2009, and Corrective Services Act 2006.

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

“It is vital that information released by Government is compliant with relevant legislation.”