Child safety, youth justice slammed by magistrate for failing boy in Townsville detention centre

A North Queensland magistrate has put Child Safety and Youth Justice on blast, after a teenager jailed almost continuously since he was 11 was held as a “captive audience” to the departments’ failings against him.

Behind prison barsPhoto: Brett Wortman / Sunshine Coast Daily

A North Queensland magistrate has put Child Safety and Youth Justice on blast, after a teenager jailed “exponentially” since he was 11 was held as a “captive audience” to the departments’ failings against him.

Court documents show that for three years, Child Safety and Youth Justice had not offered or enrolled the now 16-year-old Aboriginal boy, dubbed ‘John’, in any programs to address his repeated assaults on police and guards in detention.

Magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri in court documents said both John and the community were now “reaping the consequences” of “our collective failure to assist him appropriately”.

The documents outline John’s sentencing over a charge of serious assault of a Cleveland Youth Detention Centre guard while he had been in custody at the facility.

The documents stated that before the assault at about 4.55pm on August 17, 2022, the guard had been “continuously” flicking the lights in John’s cell on and off while he had been trying to sleep.

The 16-year-old boy was sentenced for the serious assault of a public officer at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre.

“It is not clear from the material why John could not sleep at that time,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri remarked.

In retaliation, John placed his mattress against the glass cell door to block the guard’s view of him, expecting to have a “conversation” through the door about them flicking the lights.

“John advised the officer that he had a cup of urine and that if the officer entered the cell, John would pour the urine on him,” the documents read.

“John expected the officer to attempt to de-escalate the situation, but the officer entered the cell.”

It stated there was an “absence of evidence” as to why the officer had to wake John up before the assault.

Since 2016, John had been sentenced on 45 past offences of violence or assault towards public officers of police, while in custody.

This was in contrast to the five common assaults while out of custody.

It was noted that while John had “pronounced violent tendencies” in dealing with police, he did not have a “general inclination” towards violence.

“Whether or not the flicking of the light switch was designed to elicit a behavioural reaction from John, it clearly had that effect,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri in the documents remarked.

“It seems highly likely that John has been committing these offences since he was 10 years old because of the same underlying early-life trauma and through processes,” he said.

Court documents show that no programs to assist the boy with his behaviour had been offered to him since 2019.

And despite John’s growing history of offending, Youth Justice had not offered any anger management or other programs in relation to his offending since 2019.

In a report by Youth Justice for the sentence, the department said Aggression Replacement Training was sometimes offered in detention as a “group-based intervention”, but that “may not have been offered” due to Covid-19 restrictions.

But Mr Mac Giolla Ri did not agree, saying John’s difficulties were “so serious” that it was unlikely that an “off the shelf program” with other children would be appropriate.

He also noted that the Covid-19 crisis that had gripped youth detention centres in late 2021 and early 2022 had been “resolved” for about six months, and yet still no anger management programs had been offered.

“It seems unlikely to me that this is a valid reason for the failure of Youth Justice to attempt anger management interventions with John for the last three years,” he said.

Child safety was also unable to identify any anger management or other relevant interventions put in place for John, despite holding legal guardianship over him.

According to Youth Justice, a child in detention should be given access to therapeutic services that meet their needs.

“ … To date, John has not been given the assistance that he needs and, under the (Youth Justice) principles, the community is entitled to expect. John and the community are reaping the consequences of our collective failure to assist him appropriately,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri said.

John was sentenced to a restorative justice order.

Originally published as Child safety, youth justice slammed by magistrate for failing boy in Townsville detention centre