Queensland is among the worst offenders for violating children’s rights in the youth justice system, with an ex-detainee claiming police treat young people “like scum”, according to new research.
The report released by Save the Children on Wednesday found Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia have adopted “tough on crime” measures to youth justice instead of a “child’s rights approach”, which would be more effective and humane.
In those three jurisdictions, the use of excessive force, restraint and adult facilities to detain children were identified as significant breaches of children’s rights.
Mat Tinkler, chief executive of Save the Children Australia, said Australia’s youth justice system “is responsible for repeated, egregious breaches of children’s rights, often resulting in direct harm to many children”.
“We are a nation that prides ourselves on giving everyone an opportunity to succeed, and yet authorities are setting children and young people up to fail,” he said.
Queensland overrode its Human Rights Act in February to make breach of bail an offence for children in light of “community concern” after a series of high-profile crimes.
Shane*, a former Queensland detainee, told Save the Children that police officers in watchhouses ignored requests for medical assistance and hit young people when cameras weren’t switched on.
“Sometimes [the police] can be all right, other times they just treat us like scum,” he told the charity.
“They like to swear at us, they like to hit us when the cameras are not on.”
Shane, 18, is on remand. He’s been in and out of detention since the age of 13, with his latest stay in a Queensland watch house totalling nine days.
Save the Children’s Australian service delivery arm – 54 reasons – has helped Shane through their bail support services, which they provide in Queensland, WA and Tasmania.
A Queensland police (QPS) spokesperson said “individual watchhouses facilitate a young person’s right to have access to legal representation, support and education”.
“As the Youth Justice Act 1992 prohibits disclosure of confidential information about young people we are unable to provide anything further,” they said.
The state’s youth justice minister, Leanne Linard, said the bail changes “were not taken lightly” and the government had “listened to the community and acted in the interests of community safety”.
In WA, boys have been sent to Casuarina prison, a maximum security facility for adults. Last year the state banned a dangerous restraint technique it had been using on children after criticism.
“Urgent attention” is also needed in the NT, the report says. Critics have condemned laws passed in 2021 which automatically place children into police custody if they commit serious breaches of bail.
Youth crime rates in Australia have steadily decreased over the past 10 years, but the majority of young people in the youth justice system have not been sentenced, the report says.
Data shows almost half of the children in detention in 2020-21 were Indigenous despite representing just 6% of the population aged 10-17.
Tinkler said governments “must invest in strengthening and expanding early intervention and diversion programs”.
“The punitive and ‘tough on crime’ approaches of Australian governments are the opposite of this,” he said.
The charity also wants the age of criminal responsibility to be increased from 10 to 14 years or older, independent oversight of youth detention facilities and limitations on solitary confinement and strip-searches on children.
A spokesperson for the federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the government was “working closely with state and territory governments on the issue of raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility”.
The spokesperson said the government was paying “particular attention” to addressing the overrepresentation of First Nations children in the criminal justice system.
*Name changed to protect the individual’s privacy
