WARNING: Distressing content
A new report has made damning findings against Queensland's juvenile justice system.
The annual report, tabled to state parliament on Thursday, found that Indigenous children were significantly over-represented, with 64 per cent of 10 to 17-year-olds under youth justice supervision and 66 per cent in detention identified as Indigenous in 2021-22.
The report says Indigenous people aged 10-17 are 21 times more likely than non-Indigenous juveniles to be under youth justice supervision and 23 times more likely to be in detention than their non-Indigenous people.
The board said it reviewed 60 of 72 juvenile deaths known to the child protection system in 2022/23.
Six deaths were in the Queensland youth justice system.
'Causing further trauma, disconnection and hopelessness'
A case study of two Indigenous boys who died after spending considerable time in the detention system found their deaths were preventable.
The boys had spent a combined 600 days in detention.
Both children had upbringings exposed to violence, alcohol, drugs, abuse, neglect and family separations or disconnection.
The board said their experiences in detention "served to cause further trauma, disconnection and hopelessness".
"It is not acceptable for any system to fail in its intent so significantly," chairman Luke Twyford said in the annual report.
It highlights that our current model of detention is not working as intended.
The board said it sought to understand how contact with the youth justice system led to a "negative cycle" for some offenders.
"Children and young people need a youth justice system that can provide trauma-informed responses to address their underlying beliefs and behaviours," it said.
"Instead, we have a system that can too easily fall into providing a negative cycle of more punitive practices and escalating behaviours that trap young people into anti-social and risk-taking behaviours that led to a cycle of incarceration."
Other findings
- On an average day in 2022, 267 Queensland young people aged 10-17 years were in youth justice custody.
- Another 256 were in a youth detention centre and 227 spent time in a youth detention centre on unsentenced detention.
- Youth offenders in Queensland are spending the highest number of nights in custody in Australia. Queensland recorded 100,425 total nights followed by 68,172 in NSW
- On an average day in Queensland in 2022, 267 kids aged 10 to 17 were in a youth detention centre and 227 were there on unsentenced detention
- Before the kids are sentenced, 60 per cent spent more than 30 nights in custody
- Six boys who were known to the child protection and youth justice system died in the 2022/23 period - four of them were Indigenous juveniles
- In 2021, more than 90 per cent of young people who completed a detention period in Queensland committed another offence in the 12 months following their release.
- Data from the 2022 Youth Justice Census that spoke with more 1600 young offenders found nearly half had stopped school, training or employment
- More than half of the children had experienced domestic and family violence
- More than a quarter had one parent who had spent time in adult custody
- One-third suffered from a mental health condition and a behavioural disorder
Recent breaches of human rights
In response to a youth crime outcry and capacity issues, the state government is building two new detention centres in Queensland.
It comes after controversial laws were passed in 2023 allowing contingencies for police watch houses and adult prisons to be used as youth detention centres, overriding the state's Human Rights Act.
The contingencies can only be used in extraordinary circumstances until the Woodford and Cairns detention centres are complete in 2026 and 2027.
