‘Completely full’: Figures shock reveal rates of kids in custody
It’s been revealed close to 800 children have been locked up at the Cairns watch-house in the past year as an advocate comes forward to allege the withholding of basic human rights at the state’s biggest lock-up.
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It’s been revealed close to 800 children have locked up at the Cairns watch-house in the past year as an advocate comes forward to allege withholding basic human rights at the state’s biggest lock-up.
Claims cells designed for two are routinely sleeping four juvenile prisoners come as
Queensland grapples with the unenviable accolade of having the highest rate of unsentenced youth prisoners in the country.
The State of Incarceration: Insights into Imprisonment in Queensland report states almost nine in 10 of children in detention on an average night are unsentenced prisoners.
Shocking figures tabled through as a Parliamentary question on notice has revealed 788 youths were locked up at the Cairns watch house in the 12 months to September this year.
A peak was hit in March when 79 young people were recorded as being under lock and key at the Sheridan St facility.
This is despite the Queensland Law Society calling for a ban to children under 14-years-old being held in watch-houses, the office of the Queensland Public Guardian condemning the practice and the government committing to ban watch-house detention of kids in 2019.
A Cairns grandmother received first-hand experience with the Cairns watch-house after her grandchildren came into contact with the juvenile justice system.
“They are completely full, they have him in the holding cells and he is only 15,” she said.
“It’s so crowded, kids are sleeping on the floor. Who are they to be kicking cell doors, who are they to be withholding food.”
The long-time Cairns local acts as an informal carer for troubled kids under Child Safety order and for years has opened up her home to those in need of a bed.
She claims to have been asked by police to take clothes into the Cairns watch house on the weekend when non-government organisations (NGOs) such as YETI have no workers rostered on.
Child safety, youth justice staff, and NGOs are funded to provide support services for youth in custody, however day-to-day care of young people on child protection orders is the responsibility of Queensland Police.
Queensland police declined to state the maximum capacity of the Cairns watch-house or say how many youths were bunking up in the same cell.
Far North District Chief Superintendent Rhys Newton refuted claims prisoners were being denied basic necessities.
“People in custody are afforded the highest levels of respect, fairness and dignity,” he said.
“We provide them with soap, toothpaste and brushes and female hygiene products are all provided to prisoners by the QPS. Clothing is provided, where required and requested, by external agencies.”
In response to skyrocketing youth crime in October Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced $500m was on the table to expand youth detention services and a dedicated facility in Cairns was “under consideration”.
At the launch of new mobile police beat vehicles Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt was asked if he was surprised about rates of child incarceration in Cairns.
“The numbers are a lot, but it means that the hardworking men and women of the Queensland Police Service are doing their job,” he said.
“You’d be absolutely guaranteed that nobody … wants to have children in watch houses any longer than they need.”
Mr Pitt said the key to reducing incarceration rates was early intervention and he conceded a movement calling on the government to scrap plans for a fourth youth detention centre were “very solid”.
“However, people will continue to do the wrong thing. And they’re going to be requiring appropriate facilities to actually handle that,” he said.
“(The proposed detention centre) is being explored, it’s being assessed and it would not be wise for me to suggest we actually should have it or not have it.”
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