No access to fresh air: Children held in ‘inadequate’ adult watch houses for weeks

Children being held in adult watch houses for extended periods of time are using mattresses to surround themselves when using the toilet, Queensland’s youth detention watchdog has revealed.

A report from the Queensland inspector of detention services - following inspections of watch houses at Cairns in January 2024 and Murgon in November 2023 - concluded both facilities were inadequate to hold children.

Queensland’s youth detention centres are often full, so children are being held in adult watch houses.

Cairns watch house was overcrowded and had no natural light in its cells or common areas, while at Murgon there was no access to fresh air, the report said.

Both watch houses lacked privacy for children.

“In the Cairns watch house, we saw children using their mattresses to surround themselves in an attempt to get privacy when using the toilet,” the report says.

“We were advised that this is a common practice, and that children do the same at Murgon.”

During the inspection, 10 of the 11 children held in Cairns were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Murgon watch house was holding three children - all of them Indigenous.

In one case study in the report, a child admitted to Cairns watch house staff they had consumed methamphetamine in the 24 hours before their arrest, had a chest infection and had attempted self-harm within the past three months, including while in custody.

No further medical or mental health assessments were undertaken on the day they were admitted, and it was not until the eighth day the child was in custody they were seen by a nurse.

“By this time, they had complained of sore ribs, a blocked nose, fever and stomach cramps,” the report said.

“When their condition had not improved by day 13, the nurse administered medication that day and on the following four consecutive days.”

Between January to October 2023, the longest stays at Murgon watch house were two boys aged 14 and 16, who spent 29 days in the facility.

The inspector identified one young person effectively being held in isolation for 12 days because they were the only child at the facility.

“The only activities the child was noted as engaging in were watching television and playing cards on their own,” the report says.

Both facilities were inadequate for children, the report concluded, expressing concern about detaining young people in watch houses for any period, “let alone the kind of extended and long-term detention we witnessed at each of the watch houses”.

But, with Queensland’s youth detention centres often being full, the report noted it was “likely that children will continue to be detained in watch houses in the foreseeable future”.

”If detained in a watch house, children should be held for the minimum time possible, and transferred to a more suitable facility as soon as possible,” the report says.

Anyone needing support can contact Lifeline 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25) or 13YARN 13 92 76.

AAP