Queensland youth detention worker calls for changes to how repeat offenders are dealt with

A whistleblower has provided a rare and explosive insight into a youth detention centre, exposing what goes down inside what he likens to “holiday camps”.

A former youth detention worker is calling for changes to how serious repeat youth offenders are detained. Picture: Liam Kidston

Serious repeat youth offenders should be made to “earn” their way out of detention to stop them treating the punishment as a “holiday camp”, an insider says.

The one-time Queensland youth detention worker who spent several years at centres across the state said serial offenders should initially be placed in watch house-style accommodation and be made to earn privileges as they move through the system.

“Watch house-style accommodation should be the initial impact then their progress through detention should be merit-based rewards earned by attending education and drug and alcohol programs, offender programs and maintaining behaviour,” he said.

“The philosophy must change; the youth offenders must earn their privileges not just be given them as a right.”

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll says children shouldn’t be placed in watch houses. Picture: David Clark

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll in September doubled down on her stance that children shouldn’t be placed in watch houses, the worker hit out at the way the system was currently managed.

“Detention is a holiday camp … (juvenile criminals) are allowed basic human rights,” he said.

“The way detention is modelled and the way the sentences are metered out – that I think needs a lot of work – if a child commits murder the maximum sentence is 10 years.”

“That sentencing process is wrong, the management of detention is wrong because it’s the kid’s rights – part of the juvenile Justice Act – the manual says it is the right of a child to have a TV (for example).”

The insider said he’d witnessed youths in detention buoyed by television news stories about juvenile crime, with residents “cheering throughout the unit, bravado, boasting about their exploits”.

The whistleblower says juvenile criminals are not scared of the impact of their actions.

“The average juvenile criminal is not scared of the impact of their actions,” he said.

The man also urged for changes to the way youth detention workers were recruited and trained.

“There is a constant revolving door of recruitment – kids are being locked down because of staffing levels … you always feel outnumbered,” he said.

He said new youth detention workers should be “indoctrinated” at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre (BYDC) for at least two months, so they are “exposed” to the “big picture” before officially starting the job.

“Initially when I started, I had no training – I was called up one day, they said, ‘Can you work?’… I was basically handed a set of keys and they said, ‘Go for it’,” he said.

“Now there is a five-week course and a few shadow shifts to learn the job – which is not enough.

“They are just pulling people off the street, who are not necessarily vetted properly.

The worker acknowledged that while some young people were being rehabilitated through the current system, there were also disturbing instances of generational and serious repeat offenders.

Triple murderer John Woodman.

John Brian Woodman, a convicted killer who served less than five years behind bars for his role in a horrific triple-murder in Toowoomba, was among the offenders the worker oversaw.

Woodman was 16 when he and another 16-year-old were convicted alongside Scott Geoffrey Maygar, then 18, of Rockhampton, for the torture and murders of Michael Thompson, 30, and David Lyons and Tyson Wilson, both 17, in 2005.

Woodman’s crimes were so heinous that a court ordered the 16-year-old could be identified after he was convicted in 2007.

“That was probably the most heinous crime that I’ve come across,” the worker said.

“(That offender) is one that you will never change … It’s in his face, you can see it in his eyes – (he) blanks out.”