An Aboriginal teenager with an intellectual disability was likely locked in solitary confinement for more than 500 days at Queensland’s troubled Cleveland youth detention centre, in a situation described to a court as a “major failure in our system”.
Michael*, now 19, spent more than two years on remand at the Townsville centre while the children’s court dealt with charges related to a violent sexual attack on a 16-year-old girl.
On Friday, the court heard that during 744 days in the youth prison, Michael was subject to a regime of “fairly routine” solitary confinement – where he was regularly locked in his cell for more than 20 hours a day – and that this was overwhelmingly due to staffing issues at the centre.
The crown prosecutor, Tom Hancock, accepted that the report on Michael’s period in detention was “quite concerning and particularly problematic”.
His barrister, Laura Reece, told the court the evidence provided “a truly concerning pattern of keeping a young person restrained and alone for reasons of organisational failure, effectively.
“There are always pressures on government organisations, but this youth detention centre is charged with the custody of young people, many of whom, like [Michael], are vulnerable, and in this represents a major failure of our system in the way this young person has been – I won’t use the word ‘cared’ for – but provided for.”
A report tabled in court shows Michael was recorded as being in 24 hours of unbroken “separation” – a term the department says means being locked in a room alone – on 515 days out of the 744 he spent in custody.
However, Andrew Morris, the acting deputy director of the Cleveland youth detention centre, told the court that the separation report was not an accurate representation of the actual time Michael was kept locked in his room.
Morris said sometimes young people might attend appointments or take part in activities while recorded as being subject to “separation”, and that further information provided to the court was a more accurate reflection of the time Michael had been locked up.
Supplementary reports supplied by youth justice only covered a portion of Michael’s 744 days in detention.
The most comprehensive report – covering a total of 175 days across the two-year period – showed Michael was in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours a day on 125 days, or about 71% of the time.
If taken as reflective of his entire two-year period in youth detention, Michael would have spent about 530 days in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours.
A secondary report, detailing 73 consecutive days earlier this year, showed that Michael was allowed out of his cell for more than three hours on only one occasion during that period.
Morris conceded, under questioning, that about 70% of the times Michael was recorded as “separated” were due to staffing shortages at Cleveland, when employee ratios at the detention centre fell below requirements. Other occasions were due to “incidents” at the centre, only one of which was related to Michael’s behaviour.
Reece told the court that during two years at Cleveland, Michael was enrolled in school but that his record indicated he had received “no educational or other interventions”.
Michael has intellectual disabilities and was referred to the adolescent forensic mental health service upon arriving at Cleveland in 2021. But the court heard he received no treatment because the service did not have the capacity to see young people with trauma-related mental health issues.
A Guardian Australia investigation into Cleveland – one of three Queensland youth prisons – found that cell-block lockdowns of young people became so common and widespread earlier this year that some children spent months in solitary confinement and attended almost no classes or rehabilitation programs.
Staffing numbers at the centre had dropped dramatically until a recent recruitment campaign. In July 2022, almost 20% of the employee roles at Cleveland were vacant.
Michael’s periods in confinement are substantially longer than any previous case that has been made public.
He has been held in the youth detention system since he was 17, in June 2021. The charges against him – four counts of rape, one count of sexual assault, and one count of robbery – have taken more than two years to come to court.
Michael pleaded guilty to the offending earlier this year and was sentenced on Friday to a total of four years and six months in custody.
Judge Nathan Jarro ordered that Michael be released after serving only 50% of his overall sentence, to take into account the “special circumstances” of his treatment in youth detention. He will be taken to an adult prison for about 10 weeks to complete the sentence.
Jarro said Michael’s offending had been “very serious” and “degrading”.
He detailed that Michael had attacked a girl, 16, who was walking home from a service station one afternoon. He sexually assaulted and raped her.
“I agree with the crown that your offending in those circumstances was persistent and brazen,” Jarro said.
Jarro said Michael had a significant criminal history, in Queensland and the Northern Territory. He said the teen had a problematic family background and environment, “including exposure to harm and associated trauma, [a] history of unstable and inconsistent care arrangements [and] exposure to domestic violence behaviour”.
“You were exposed to and the subject of domestic violence, parental substance abuse, not properly looked after by either of your parents,” Jarro said.
* not his real name
Written Off seeks to detail the experiences of young people in Queensland’s justice system, where record numbers of children are being arrested and imprisoned. Know more? Contact ben.smee@theguardian.com
