Call for better protection for children in Qld watchhouses

A 16-year-old boy was allegedly left in a Queensland watchhouse without fresh air, clean clothes and adequate bedding during a 28-day detention, prompting a demand for better protection for minors.

A teenage boy spent 28 days in a Queensland watchhouse without fresh air, clean clothes or adequate bedding.

Children must be better protected in police watchhouses, after a 16-year-old boy was allegedly left without fresh air, clean clothes and adequate bedding during his 28-day incarceration, Queensland’s Human Rights Commissioner says.

Commissioner Scott McDougall’s investigation into the incident found, broadly, the facilities “do not meet the ­standards necessary to safely and humanely accommodate children”.

The Queensland Human Rights Commission said the teenager’s complaint included allegations of a lack of access to fresh air, exercise and natural light.

He was also exposed to noise, had insufficient changes of clothes, inadequate bedding and was not reviewed by a health clinician.

The report found the allegations indicated a “limitation of the complainant’s rights to protection as a child, privacy and humane treatment” while deprived of liberty.

“Watchhouses are not a place for children,” Mr McDougall said.

Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall. Picture: Liam Kidston

“Lengthy periods of detention in watchhouses, which are not designed or intended to hold children and indeed are only meant to hold adult detainees for limited amounts of time, will not result in rehabilitated children on release long-term.

“The recommendations made in this report are urgently needed to be actioned, to ensure that any children held in watchhouses receive humane treatment and access to their basic rights.”

Mr McDougall maintains that children should not be held in watchhouses for longer than 24 hours and has issued 10 recommendations he is calling on the government to action.

They include developing minimum standards relating to children in watchhouse custody, explaining them and the complaints processes on admission.

A review into police watch- houses is expected to reveal “systemic issues” with overfilled and ageing holding facilities, Acting Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said.

He said the review, due in about seven weeks, had inspected every watchhouse in the state.

With watchhouses regularly at or near capacity, Mr Chelepy said there needed to be further examination of technologies available including video appearances in court.

“It’s going to reveal some systemic issues; similar to our buildings, our watchhouses are ageing,” Mr Chelepy said of the review.

“They’re old. They’re not fit for purpose. They are continually over capacity. We arrested more people last year than we’ve ever arrested and put through our watchhouses.

Acting Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said he had inspected every watchhouse in Queensland, saying there ws need for further investigation.

“They’re not a great environment for our staff to work in. They’re not a good environment to have kids in or adults in some of those watch-­houses.”

Mr Chelepy said police needed to remove people from watchhouses sooner, including children.

“They’ve got workplace health and safety issues in them, and this is what the review is going to bring out, and I think it’s going to present us some challenges because we’re going to require some considerable investment into our watchhouses; the way we do business in our watchhouses will need to change,” he said.

Mr Chelepy said the service had been moving prisoners between watchhouses to help balance numbers over the last two years.

“I think we need to explore more broadly why someone’s in our watchhouse and what technology is available,” he said.

“This is just my thinking: why we would bring someone into our watchhouse to appear in court when there’s so great a technology these days.”

Originally published as Call for better protection for children in Qld watchhouses