‘This is a serious allegation’

Queensland premier questioned over claim a girl was left with accused sex offenders in a watch house.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: AAP

The Queensland government is under increasing pressure to end the practice of detaining children in police watch houses, after documents detailed incidents of self-harm, injury and exposure to adult inmates.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was today questioned by Opposition leader Deb Frecklington in parliament about a claim — raised in files obtained by the ABC’s Four Corners — that a girl was put in the same “pod” as two male accused sex offenders at the Brisbane city watch house.

“That is a serious allegation, and that matter is currently undergoing a full investigation,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Public Guardian Natalie Siegel-Brown wrote to the premier’s department multiple times about incidents involving children in watch houses and her serious concerns about the practice.

A spokesman for the premier said the Department of Premier and Cabinet acting director-general Rachel Hunter has been co-ordinating inquiries into those concerns.

Queensland police have said the girl was in an adjacent cell and could not have had contact with the male inmates.

Other documents say a 12-year-old girl was alone in an observation cell at the Brisbane watch house for nine days dressed in a suicide smock.

Another girl had a finger cut off by a door and had to have it reattached, and a 15-year-old boy was hospitalised after attempting to take his own life.

Concerns have been building for months over children being held in watch houses as a result of overcrowding in Queensland’s two youth detention centres. The practice has been blamed on 17-year-olds being moved into the youth justice system in February last year.

The Australian revealed last month children were being held for up to five weeks in watch houses, with a Youth Advocacy Centre (YAC) report warning facilities were “grossly unsuited”.

The former president of the Childrens Court of Queensland, judge Michael Shanahan, wrote in his annual report in December that it was a “travesty and a burden on the police service” that children as young as 11 were being held in watch houses.

The state government last month announced it would spend $150 million on a new 32-bed youth detention centre at Wacol, in southwest Brisbane, and $27 million on 16 more beds at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, bringing statewide capacity to 302 beds.

But the state opposition say there has been a failure of planning for the transition of 17-year-olds to youth justice, while youth advocates and lawyers are calling for a greater focus on crime reduction strategies to reduce the number of children in court.

Ms Frecklington said demountables should be used in youth detention centres to get children out of watch houses.

Bar Association of Queensland president Rebecca Treston says “unacceptable stress” is being placed on police with “little or no training in accommodating children”.

“They are being held with adult prisoners in locations that often have no natural light, no proper exercise facilities, no teaching capacity, minimal access for families and little or no privacy,” Ms Treston said.

YAC chairman Damien Atkinson QC said that at a stakeholders meeting last week, the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women was unable to put a deadline on removing children from watch houses.

“We are being asked to accept children in watch houses is the new normal,” Mr Atkinson said.

Housing children with adults in watch houses for extended periods “won’t reduce reoffending”, he said.

The government has said it will spend more than $320 million on “expanding, building and staffing” new youth detention centres and other initiatives to reduce reoffending. A total of $550 million will have been spent on youth justice reforms since 17-year-olds were moved out of the adult criminal justice system.

A Queensland Police Service spokesman said police watch houses “have always held juveniles in custody for periods of time” and numbers fluctuated.

“Where operationally possible juveniles are housed in separate areas to adults and their placements within a watch house environment is carefully reviewed to ensure their safety,” he said.

“Youth Justice workers are co-located in the Brisbane watch house, providing vital support and liaison with young people in care.”

Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts has said holding children in watch houses is an “absolute disgrace” and called for an end to the practice.