Queensland jail staff crisis: teens locked in solitary

An Aboriginal boy spent almost 24 hours in solitary confinement on Christmas Eve because of staff shortages at a Queensland youth detention centre.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman with magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri.

An Aboriginal boy spent almost 24 hours in solitary confinement on Christmas Eve because of staff shortages at a Queensland youth detention centre.

A surge in prison numbers and chronic staff shortages at the state’s three youth detention centres has resulted in children being locked in their cells for extended periods and others held in adult watch houses for weeks.

Three years after the Palas­zczuk government said it was “solving the problem” of keeping children out of police watch ­houses, hundreds of kids as young as 12 have been detained for more than a week at a time in the facilities.

One Indigenous teenager spent 10 days jailed in the Mount Isa watch house before he was sent to Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville, where he spent an average of 21.5 hours a day in solitary confinement.

The 17-year-old, referred to as David in court documents, pleaded guilty to a crime spree in December in which he and another broke into businesses, stealing a car, cash, cigarettes and fuel.

During his stay in detention, David was let out of his cell for 10 minutes on Christmas Eve and three hours and 20 minutes on Christmas Day.

Locking children down for extended periods is in breach of government policy, which dictates children “be out of their rooms for a minimum of 12 hours a day”.

When sentencing David this week, Mount Isa magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri confirmed children were being “locked in their cells” when union-backed staff ratios were not met. “Importantly, there is no evidence of a teacher, other than one visit by a music teacher, visiting the unit,” he said.

“I understand that while separation is occurring, children are provided with educational packs and are expected to engage in self-directed learning with those packs. I have no evidence on the effectiveness of this strategy.”

In a separate case last week, Mr Mac Giolla Ri granted bail to a 15-year-old Indigenous boy with an intellectual disability after he spent 15 nights locked in the Mount Isa watch house.

The Queensland Police Service operation manual says children should not be held in a watch house overnight. “Conditions in watch houses are harsh and adult detainees are often drunk, abusive, psychotic or suicidal,” Mr Mac Giolla Ri said.

“Although children may be kept in separate cells, those cells are usually open to the sights and sounds of the watch house. Equally, there is no facility to deliver education or the therapeutic interventions that are sometimes available in detention centres.”

Greens MP Michael Berkman said “The government is breaching its human rights obligations by putting young, mostly Indigenous, children in watch houses alongside adults and isolating them in cells for long periods of time … they’re wasting money on sugar-hit media announcements while ordinary Queenslanders bear the consequences”.

The Australian Workers Union, which represents security staff in the centres, fought for 4:1 worker-to-detainee ratios to be included in bargaining agreements a few years ago because of safety concerns.

“On a daily basis, members who work on the floor with these young people are subjected to significant occupational violence and aggression,” AWU assistant state secretary Mark Raguse said.

He said the government should increase wages for youth detention workers to help recruit and retain more staff.

Amnesty International Indigenous rights campaigner Maggie Munn said it was “completely preposterous” that children were being held in watch houses and in isolation for long periods of time in youth detention: “The damaging effect that would have on a child’s mental health and wellbeing is irreparable.”

Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard said the government would build two new youth detention centres and had spent $154m in intervention programs in the past two years.