Australia is criminalising disabled children and allegedly keeping them “in cages” in police watch houses, according to Australia’s national children’s commissioner.
“It seems the only thing we do in this country for kids with disabilities who have been failed by every other system, including health and education, is criminalise them,” Anne Hollonds told Guardian Australia.
“It’s absolutely abominable.”
“I had no idea that in Australia we do this to children until I went there myself,” Hollonds said.
Hollonds is calling for media organisations to be held accountable for irresponsible reporting on youth crime and for politicians to be called out for ignoring the best international evidence on dealing with children in the justice system.
She alleges that prisons detaining children are where “the most egregious breaches of human rights are occurring in this country”.
Last week, Guardian Australia and SBS The Feed published a series of videos and stories which revealed the distressing treatment of children in Queensland police custody, many of them disabled, and some left screaming, freezing, and struggling to breathe in isolation cells.
The investigation detailed what happens in Queensland when children are detained in “watch houses” – temporary holding cells, usually located inside police stations and designed to hold violent and dangerous adults.
Hollonds recently finished interviewing approximately 150 children detained in the justice system throughout Australia, and her research included touring the Queensland watch houses where children were being held.
“I’m probably one of the few people in the country that’s actually seen the conditions in the watch houses. And every chance I get, I want to tell that story of what I was told when I visited, and what I saw.”
She was told that children were kept in the cells, which she described as “like cages”, for up to six weeks at a time in the worst cases.
“They are in cells really only suitable for an adult overnight, and there was no natural light, no windows, no fresh air, no outdoor space,” she said.
“I asked the police officers what training they had to care for these children with complex needs. But they had no training.”
The complexities of the detained children often included cognitive disability and brain injury, Hollonds said. Most of the children were on remand and had not been sentenced or found guilty of any crime.
Hollonds said she thought the watch house cells were “horrible”.
“There is nothing in them for children. They’re not getting education, or rehabilitation,” she said.
“But then I saw the other rooms there, that were storage-cupboard sized. Children were put in these rooms if their behaviour was too difficult to manage.
“I just couldn’t imagine a child, a distressed, traumatised child, being put into this room.”
When she visited a health facility attached to one of the Queensland prisons, Hollonds asked one of the health professionals what they do for children who are detoxing from drugs and alcohol.
“The staff member said, ‘That’s not a problem, because they will have detoxed at the watch house’.” There are no health workers or facilities at the watch houses.
Hollonds’ findings will form part of a Human Rights Commission report being tabled to parliament in August on how to improve safety and wellbeing for children in youth justice.
The report will call for every state and territory to regularly meet with the federal government to discuss child safety and wellbeing, as occurs for issues identified by national cabinet as priority areas, such as women’s safety. It will call for a public health response to youth justice, including early health intervention services for children and their families or carers.
“The commonwealth keeps their hands off youth justice, saying ‘it’s not our responsibility’ because prisons are managed by states and territories,” Hollonds said.
“I would argue our most vulnerable children are victims of federation failure.
The report will also suggest the media be held to account for irresponsible reporting of youth crime.
For example, Hollonds said there are media organisations that recycle the same CCTV, phone or security camera footage of youth engaging in criminal behaviour for multiple stories, giving the impression of new crimes occurring and being captured.
She said politicians also need to be called out for failing to approach youth crime based on the best international evidence, which shows the younger a child is at their first sentencing, the more likely they are to reoffend.
“How many exposés do we need to have in this country before someone notices that what we’re doing is completely the wrong thing, and it’s not keeping the community safer?” Hollonds said.
“We’re recycling the same evidence, but there is no accountability for addressing the underlying causes of youth crime by addressing the safety and wellbeing needs of these children, which is what ultimately would keep the community safer.”
She said it costs over $1m a year to lock up a child, which could instead be spent on keeping kids healthy, in housing, out of poverty and at school learning, as this is also what works to keep the community safe.
It is a sentiment echoed by president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Paediatrics and Child Health Division Council, Prof Nitin Kapur, who said children under 14 years of age should not be in the criminal justice system in the first place.
He said he was “horrified” to see the footage of the treatment of children in watch houses.
“These are 10, 11-year-old children with neurodisability, their developmental age is probably seven, eight years of age,” he said.
“For them to be in contact with the criminal justice system actually horrifies me.
“Many children who interact with the criminal justice system often have underlying health conditions, making it even more important that they have access to adequate and appropriate supports.
“Queensland must coordinate, fund, and provide effective and timely health and wellbeing assessments for all children and young people entering custodial settings. This should be conducted by qualified health professionals, including referral to paediatricians.”
