Youth crime Qld: New $627.6m Woodford detention centre to be ready by end of 2026
Work has begun on a new South East Queensland youth detention centre that will feature “more homelike accommodation units” and comes at a cost of about $7.8 million for each of the cells.
Police & Courts
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A major new youth detention centre will be ready by the end of 2026, with the government confirming the project will cost a whopping $627.6m — the equivalent of each of the 80 cells costing $7.8m each.
The 80-bed facility made up of smaller “more homelike accommodation units” is set to be built next to the adult correctional facility at Woodford with early works beginning on Tuesday.
But another proposed youth detention facility in Cairns — set to have 40-beds — won’t be ready until some stage in 2027, with the government finalising negotiations with First Nations stakeholders on a preferred site.
Youth advocates warned the new facility would help capacity issues but ultimately building more jails would not fix the bigger problem and it was akin to “fixing a leak by using a bigger bucket”.
The start of construction at the Woodford site comes as the state government toughens its rhetoric on youth crime ahead of an impending election, with Premier Steven Miles saying he made “no apologies” for Queensland locking up more children than ever.
Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer confirmed as of Tuesday morning there were 298 children across the state’s three existing detention centres while 70 children were languishing in watch houses.
She said the number had been higher, particularly over the Christmas period.
Ms Farmer said detention was only one part of the government’s approach to addressing youth crime but if they are a threat they authorities “must intervene to try to turn their lives around and have a positive life trajectory”.
“But we also don’t want to see those young people back again, if they’re in detention, which is why this facility and the Cairns facility will be therapeutic detention centres,” she said.
BESIX Watpac has been appointed lead contractor for the $627.61m new Woodford Youth Detention Centre.
Queensland’s newest youth detention centre — the 32-bed West Moreton facility — was announced in May 2019 and opened in December 2020.
It cost $150m to build, putting the average cost per cell at $4.6m compared to the Woodford facility at $7.8m per cell.
PeakCare Queensland chief executive Tom Allsop said it was the people working in the centres that made the biggest difference.
“Increasing detention capacity is like fixing a leak by using a bigger bucket,” he said.
“Imagine what could be achieved if we invested $627m directly into communities to help them break the cycles of offending and address the drivers of crime.”
Youth Advocate Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes warned the new facility would certainly ease capacity issues, but it ultimately would not go to the root cause of the problem.
She said the amount spent building a new jail would perhaps be of better use improving the residential care system — which many children in youth detention have been in contact with.
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