Breach of bail drives lift in kids court numbers as detention strains

The news

Queensland children who breached bail restrictions around curfews, the company they kept and extra offending have driven the bulk of increased charges finalised by courts in the last financial year.

Childrens Court President Deborah Richards used her latest annual report to note the youth justice system “continues to struggle” with an increasing number of kids in detention and watch houses.

The report noted the average daily number of kids in youth detention rose again in 2023-24 to 286 – 86 per cent were on remand.Credit: Matt Dennien

In the first full reporting period since the controversial breach of bail offence was established for children in March 2023, the number of convictions jumped to 6697.

This figure puts the number of finalised charges for that offence at a greater level than anything other than unlawful entry (8056), and more than even vehicle (6016) or general theft (6419).

Why it matters

Legal experts and even the former Labor government had rubbished the breach of bail offence, before the latter included it in a suite of changes which it acknowledged would see more kids detained.

The report notes the average daily number of kids in youth detention rose again in 2023-24 to 286 – 86 per cent were on remand for an average period (48 days) “steadily increasing” for four years.

Capacity in the state’s three youth detention centres is 306, with safe operating levels deemed lower. Richards said the result was the more than 500 kids kept in watch houses across all but one month.

Premier David Crisafulli warned on Thursday of “short-term challenges” with detention – as the summer offending peak looms – under his own youth justice changes widely panned by experts.

What they said

While Richards said it was inevitable in a state the size of Queensland that there would be times when a child needed to spend a night in the watch house, the time spent by some was “significant”.

“In the last year, 447 young people spent more than a week in a watch house and another 259 spent more than two weeks in a watch house,” she wrote in her report overview.

“Watchhouses are not meant for, or equipped to, hold prisoners for extended periods. They are not appropriate places for children to be housed.”

Childrens Court president Deborah Richards

Richards acknowledged the complexity of children in the justice system, its growing disproportionate cohort of First Nation kids, and the less than 0.6 per cent of 10- to 17-year-olds with no ongoing contact.

She also noted the small core of young offenders who “cause deep concern” to the community driving “increasing calls for harsher and/or different penalties”.

By the numbers

• 3281. The number of distinct young people who had a proven offence finalised in a Queensland court (down from 3302, 3372, and 3876 across the previous four years).
• 49,612. The number of finalised charges (up from 43,033 in 2022-23 and 39,661 in 2018-19 – the first full year in which 17-year-olds were included).
• 19 per cent and 51.6 per cent. The portion of distinct young people with a proven offence deemed a “serious repeat offender”, and the portion of all proven youth offences this group committed.
• 47 per cent. The portion of all recorded victims of personal offences with an age recorded (5284) who were under-18 themselves.