The number of children in watch houses could "explode" if Queensland passes new youth justice laws, and already vulnerable girls will spend longer periods in youth detention, advocates warn.
This week, state parliament will debate legislation intended to crack down on serious repeat young offenders.
Changes include making breach of bail an offence for children, expanding a trial of GPS ankle monitors and increasing the maximum penalty for unlawful use of a motor vehicle from seven to 10 years imprisonment.
The draft laws have been widely criticised by stakeholders groups for overriding the state's Human Rights Act and for being "directly at odds" with the government's Path to Treaty and Closing the Gap commitments.
Amnesty International Australia's Indigenous rights campaigner Kacey Teerman went so far as to say the "harmful laws" could trigger a human rights emergency.
"The proposal risks exacerbating the human rights crisis in Queensland's youth justice system, where juvenile detention centres are at full capacity," Ms Teerman said in a letter sent to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
"We are deeply concerned that the new measures will lead to an explosion in the number of children in adult watch houses.
"Mounting evidence has shown that over-policing does not keep children out of prison. But community-led prevention and early intervention programs do."
The state government's latest youth crime law changes were sparked by the death of Emma Lovell, who was allegedly stabbed in the chest by two teenagers on Boxing Day.
Ms Palaszczuk previously said the changes were a result of listening to the needs of the community, and Queensland police, to tackle youth crime.
Sisters Inside CEO Debbie Kilroy said the proposed crackdown would lead to more girls being locked up and act against the state government's commitment to better support incarcerated women and girls.
"We're going to see more girls in watch houses and more girls in prisons, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls," she said.
"These laws have become a default response for social issues, which result in girls being criminalised and imprisoned.
"We are going to see more and more children locked up in watch houses than ever before."
Children are regularly held in police watch houses as an interim measure while they await court appearances or transfer to youth detention.
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) operation manual advises children should only be held in watch houses for two or more nights in extraordinary circumstances.
But already this year in Queensland, at least 25 young people have been locked up for three weeks or more.
Queensland police said this year there had been 426 young females aged between 11 and 17 held in watch houses up to March 8.
The QPS noted some of the girls would have only been in custody long enough to have bail provided but the longest length of stay so far this year was 14 days and seven hours.
A total of 64 per cent of the girls detained in a watch house identified as First Nations.
The final Hear Her Voice report from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce, led by former Court of Appeal president Margaret McMurdo, looked at women and girls in the criminal justice system and was handed to the government last July.
It found current laws and arrangements for watch houses enabled women and girls to be held for unreasonably long periods, had a disproportionate impact on them due to transport issues associated with there being fewer women's prisons, and didn't adequately protect their human rights.
The state government's response to the report — overseen by the Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman — committed to improve the experience of female offenders and gave in-principle support to a recommendation for an independent review into issues impacting on the time women and girls were held in watch houses.
The state noted other recommendations, including putting a limit on the period of time women and girls could be held in watch houses, minimum standards of care, and publicly reporting details of watch house detainees such as gender, location and Indigenous status.
Ms Kilroy said the new laws would further exacerbate issues identified in the report.
"We need a government that is courageous, not a government that is frightened and scared about votes," she said.
"It is very clear the government knows harm is going to be perpetrated, predominantly against Aboriginal children, in regards to these laws.
"We have to end the carceral responses and actually work with the girls and young women on the ground day in and day out because we know it works."
'We don't want young women in watch houses'
Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard said the government was "very alive" to the task force recommendations and working with the Attorney-General to implement them.
"When a young person is in a watch house it's because they have been arrested and there's a concern for community safety," she said.
"We don't want young women being held in watch houses and we are certainly very present when there are young people there, young justice staff are in there daily."
A spokesperson for Police Minister Mark Ryan said actions to implement the task force recommendations were still being considered.
"The Queensland Police Service continues to work closely with Queensland Corrective Services, the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs, Queensland Health and a variety of non-government agencies to ensure the health, welfare and safety of all persons in custody is a priority," the spokesperson said.
In a written statement, the spokesperson said the public reporting of watch house detainees could risk identifying children.
"Watch house numbers fluctuate daily and sometimes on an hourly basis. The time a person may be detained in a watch house can vary considerably," the statement said.
"Publication of highly specific information such as the location, age, gender and Indigenous status may risk inadvertently identifying a child."
Crime trends for girls
A report released by the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council last year examined trends in the sentencing of women and girls.
Looking at court data from 2005–06 to 2018–19, it found that for girls nearly half of the sentenced cases involved theft, followed by public order offences — which included threatening violence or being drunk in public — and justice and government offences.
Those offences included breaching a community-based or non-violence order.
More than a third of women and girls sentenced were repeat offenders.
The recidivism rate was higher for girls than women, with nearly half (48.4 per cent) having a prior sentenced offence and 62.1 per cent having re-offended.
Ms Palaszczuk has previously said the reforms were aimed at a group of 300 to 400 hardcore repeat offenders, who were committing most of the crimes.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed there were 10,304 youth offenders aged between 10 and 17 years of age in 2021–22.
About 7,088 offenders were boys while 3,217 were girls – overall a slight decrease from the previous year.
'Girls in watch houses for longer'
Queensland Council of Social Service chief executive Aimee McVeigh said the laws would put more young people in watch houses and detention for longer, and compound trauma for girls.
"There are girls as young as 10 being detained in Queensland and what we know about these girls is that most of them have experienced abuse and violence, and many of them have disabilities, including intellectual impairments," she said.
"We already know that girls in Queensland are being detained at twice the rate as girls in other jurisdictions and this bill will increase incarceration of children."
Ms McVeigh said girls often wait longer in watch houses to be transferred to detention centres due to problems with transport.
"Girls and women are more disproportionately impacted by legislation associated with watch houses because there are fewer prisons for women and also there are more complexities around transporting girls and women [to facilities]," she said.
"What that means is girls and women are likely to be spending longer times in watch houses in Queensland."
