The number of women sentenced to prison in Queensland has quadrupled since 2005, making it the state with the most imprisoned women in the country.
The number of women sentenced to prison in Queensland rose from 485 in 2005-06 to 2,128 in 2018-19.
With sentences being of different lengths, the result has been a gradual growth of Queensland's female prison population, rising from 475 at the end of the 2011-12 financial year to 928 in 2021.
As of March, Queensland had the most imprisoned women of any state, with 822 prisoners making up 28 per cent of the nation's female prison population.
The numbers were compiled for the new Engendering Justice report published by the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council (QSAC).
John Robertson, chair of the council and a former judge, said the rate of prison sentences had jumped dramatically.
"In 2005-06, 1.7 per cent of all sentenced women received a prison sentence. This increased to 6.2 per cent in 2018-19," he said.
Crime and punishment was up for debate in Queensland parliament yesterday, with Greens MP Michael Berkman entering a private member's bill asking the government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.
Aboriginal women 'massively' incarcerated
While the proportion of Queensland women and girls being sentenced has been decreasing since 2009, the raw numbers of women receiving sentences is still growing.
Women are far more likely to face incarceration in remote parts of the state, with 35.6 per 1,000 women sentenced to prison compared with 9.9 per 1,000 in major cities.
The North Coast region, stretching from Bundaberg to the northern suburbs of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, had the highest sentencing rate, with 45.4 women sentenced per 1,000.
QSAC member and Sisters Inside founder Debbie Kilroy said she "wasn't surprised by the numbers".
"I am aware of the horrific numbers," she said.
"The mass incarceration of women and girls is just mind boggling in one sense. In other ways, it's not really … with racial gendered violence operating within all of the structures of where you're criminalised and imprisoned — I'm not surprised of the mass incarceration in that sense.
"It's Aboriginal women that are massively incarcerated, more so than any other women."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women make up 29.9 per cent of sentenced women, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls under 12 make up 74.6 per cent of those sentenced.
"[That's] almost eight times their level of representation in the general Queensland population," Mr Robertson said.
Women are being sentenced for drug offences more than ever before, up 163.7 per cent between 2005-6 and 2018-19.
Most women receive sentences shorter than a year, and nearly all of the more than half a million cases sentenced were in the Magistrates Court.
Ms Kilroy said recommendations from a 2019 productivity commission report suggesting short prison sentences are ineffective "have not been implemented".
"Majority of women that are incarcerated are homeless or have housing where they could end up houseless very quickly, where they're living in horrific poverty, low levels of education, mental health issues, drug addictions, alcohol addictions … so you put someone in prison for a short time, the housing that they did have, they will lose."
Recidivism is rampant, with more than a third of women and girls sentenced multiple times over the period.
Recommendations not implemented
Ms Kilroy said the report is just another in a long line of confronting reports.
"The thing with these reports and recommendations — like the Women's Justice and Safety Task Force, the Queensland Productivity Commission report, Walter Sofronoff's report into parole — the recommendations are not implemented," she said.
"We've even got recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody from 1991 to decriminalise and repeal public drunkenness, and that still hasn't happened.
"Governments continue to fund inquiries and reports, but recommendations continue to sit on the bookshelf, gathering dust for decades and decades and decades."
Raising the age
The number of girls sentenced to detention tripled, from 11 in 2005 to 36 in 2018-19, most commonly for crimes that involved theft.
The QSAC report pointed out "girls were most likely to receive detention for assaults occasioning bodily harm and robbery," while "boys were most commonly sentenced to detention for unlawful entry and burglary".
"The findings clearly highlight the need for a gender-specific approach to youth justice, bearing in mind the vulnerabilities, offending patterns and socio-demographics of girls sentenced in Queensland courts," the report said.
Mr Berkman's bill aimed to raise the age of criminality to 14 and would work retroactively.
The bill was called a "irresponsible" and "a slap in the face" to victims during heated debate in state parliament yesterday.
It drew heavy criticism from Katter's Australian Party – including from Shane Knuth who called it a "slap in the face to all Queenslanders, particularly those who are victims of youth crime".
"The judicial system needs to be strengthened not weakened," Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto said.
Mr Berkman said the government was "ignoring the evidence and taking the coward's path."
"Does it make sense that in the same year a child might still be losing baby teeth [and] will receive a symbolic pen license from their teacher for reliably legible handwriting that they can receive a jail sentence?" he said.
A parliamentary committee recommended the bill not be adopted; the parliament voted it down 86 to three.
Aside from Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, no Labor MP spoke on the bill.
Ms Fentiman said any changes to the age of criminal responsibility should occur nationally and would be discussed at a national meeting of attorneys-general.
"There is more work to be done before the age of criminal responsibility is raised in Queensland, the government is currently undertaking this work," she said.
The Opposition also voted against the bill, with Shadow Attorney General Tim Nicholls saying it "does not provide the community with confidence".
"It is very, very rare for someone between the ages of 10 and 14 to end up in prison," he said.
Ms Kilroy said Sisters Inside did not support the bill as it does not go far enough.
"That's a cop-out, that's a compromise, you're compromising children's lives," she said.
"So what you're saying is a child, an Aboriginal girl that's 14 years and one week old, can actually be put in a cage. I do not agree with that — no child should be caged ever."
