Three young people are taking on the Queensland government with a legal case claiming their human rights were breached when they were locked up in police watch houses.
The ABC's 7.30 program can reveal an anti-discrimination and human rights legal challenge is before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).
The police cells are meant for some of the state's worst criminals, including adults accused of murder or sexual abuse.
Katie Acheson, the outgoing CEO of the Youth Advocacy Centre, believes the case will shine a light on the practice which she believes should end.
"It should be a wake-up to the Queensland government and the Queensland population," she said.
"I think many of us don't realise that there are children right now in an adult watch house.
"They're scared and alone and they're children and we have a responsibility to take care of them and not be further traumatising them."
The legal action comes as the state's Public Guardian, Shayna Smith, tells 7.30 "advocating for children to not be detained in police watch houses continues to be a priority area of importance".
The Public Guardian revealed in a statement its community visitors who go into police watch houses raised more than 720 issues on behalf of children in 2021-22.
Those issues commonly included:
- Children aged over 14 years being detained in a watch house for more than four days
- Children aged under 14 years being detained in watch house custody overnight
- Issues about identifying suitable accommodation for when the child is released from the watch house
The Minister for Youth Justice, Leanne Linard, did not respond directly to questions about how the Queensland government planned to respond to the legal case.
"My department undertakes its obligations under the Human Rights Act very seriously," she said.
"Any question about QPS (Queensland Police Service) operational matters should be referred to QPS."
Queensland Police said it works with Minister Linard's department to "ensure young people do not remain in QPS custody for longer periods than necessary," and that young people are segregated from other prisoners.
"There are a number of reasons for extended custody in watch houses, including that the young person may need to appear on multiple matters within a short time frame, appear at a court located in remote areas of Queensland, or awaiting placement at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre or Brisbane Youth Detention Centre."
A spokesperson said, "As the QCAT matter referenced is before the tribunal it would be inappropriate for the QPS to comment on proceedings".
Concerns extended stays are leading to 'trauma' for teens
In 2019, ABC's Four Corners exposed the shocking conditions in police watch houses where children were being held near adult criminals in facilities.
The revelations prompted the Queensland government to remove most children from watch houses.
However, there are growing concerns young people are once again regularly being detained in police cells for days or even weeks at a time following a major crackdown on youth crime that began last year.
The crackdown included a presumption against bail for those accused of serious offences and came after a string of high-profile incidents, including the deaths of a young couple and their unborn child who were hit by a teenager in a stolen car.
The Queensland government argued the tough new measures were needed to target around 400 serious repeated offenders who are responsible for almost half of all youth offending, but youth justice advocates warned they were "knee-jerk" measures that would push children to the margins.
Katie Acheson is speaking out because she is worried about the harm caused by extended custody in a watch house.
Her organisation provides legal support to young people and recently had a troubling case.
"I had a young female recently, she was 16 and she was in the watch house," she said.
"She had been seen to be unfit for trial because she has such complex mental health issues because of trauma in her childhood.
"She wasn't given bail, and so she was held in the watch house for six days and during that time, she had no access to her treatment.
"We saw an immediate deterioration for her mental health, and when she got out, she was significantly impacted by six days of trauma essentially."
Supporting at-risk youth
As night falls across Brisbane's inner city, Pita Taimani and his outreach team with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service head to areas where at-risk young people like to hang out.
Five nights a week, they check on their safety and offer them a lift home before there's any trouble.
A key objective is to keep them out of custody – something they work closely with police on.
"We see that there's a need to support young people that are in the CBD, where they're not in the eyes of the police, not getting into the watch house," he told 7.30.
Mr Taimani's team also offers crucial support to young people, like access to health care and vocational education.
While 7.30 is with Mr Taimani, he finds a teenage boy he knows asleep on a park bench and wakes him up.
Mr Taimani's service has known him for years and the teenager has had a stint in youth detention.
The boy appears happy to see the workers and accepts a lift home.
Before they drop him off, the workers discuss his plan to get a job in the construction industry and stay out of trouble.
Concerns over human rights breaches
7.30 has obtained multiple complaints made about young people in police watch houses by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), an independent body responsible for protecting the rights and interests of young people in the youth detention system.
The complaints sent to Queensland Police and the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs last year expressed concerns about whether "systemic capacity issues in youth detention centres" are leading to young people being in extended custody in watch houses.
OPG lodged the complaints after individual children were unable to be moved to a detention centre because no beds were available.
The complaints question whether the practice is a breach of the Queensland Police Service Operational Procedures Manual, inconsistent with young peoples' rights under the Youth Justice Act, and may be unjustifiable under Queensland's Human Rights Act.
"The QPS Watchhouse environment is not suitable for children and young people's safety and wellbeing," one complaint reads.
It claims watch houses are inadequately resourced or regulated to care for young people for extended periods, young people are often in view of adult inmates, they have limited access to fresh air, showers, and services including health care and education, and the environment can lead to increased anxiety and trauma.
Ms Linard defended the present practice, saying in a statement: "Most young people are held in watch houses for a very short period, and each day Youth Justice undertakes assessments to prioritise admissions to detention centres".
She said there are currently 273 young people in Queensland's youth detention centres and the total built capacity is 306.
The government also says it has intervention programs underway, including youth co-responder teams that work with children currently in the youth justice system or are at risk of entering the system.
Focusing on prevention
Detective Acting Sergeant Stuart McIntyre from Queensland Police is with the Moreton Youth Justice co-responder team, which works in an area north of Brisbane.
He conducts patrols of the area at night, alongside Hannah Roberts from the Department of Children, Youth Justice, and Multicultural Affairs.
"Co-responder team is a 24-hour model, youth justice and police working together to deter young people from committing offences and decreased offending," Acting Sergeant McIntyre said.
"The sort of kids that we focus on would be young people that [are from a background of] intergenerational offending, domestic violence, issues in the household — so we want to start there and talk to them and offer referrals for the family as a whole and a holistic approach.
Acting Sergeant McIntyre said the co-responder team also closely monitors bail conditions of young people.
"In the event that they are breaching their bail, we have a prosecutor embedded within our task force and their principal responsibility is to review the bail conditions and upon their next court appearance in the event that they continue to breach their bail they may be objected to," he said.
He also visits young people in watch houses.
"It can be quite confronting and traumatic for a young person to be placed into a watch house with adult offenders," he said.
"They talk about their mental health while they're there, and how being within the watch house adversely affects them."
Calls to rethink the youth justice system
In a statement, Queensland Police said: "A significant proportion of high-risk young people are being kept in detention to protect the community as a result of the new show cause bail provisions.
"The community needs to be protected from high-level violent criminal behaviour, regardless of the age of offenders."
It also said rehabilitating young offenders remained a priority to deliver long-term change.
"The second phase of the Youth Justice Taskforce is to focus strongly on intensifying work after detention — bringing in all relevant government agencies, families, community leaders to address underlying issues and bolster assistance to young people," it said.
"This is a multi-agency collaborative panel approach to case manage high-risk repeat youth offenders. There are eighteen panels operating across the state."
Ms Acheson is calling on the Queensland government to immediately end the use of watch houses to detain young people.
"Enough is enough, it's time to take these children out of the watch houses, it's time to look at what's happening in youth detention," she said.
"How do we divert children away from cells and into the community and into a life that is meaningful?"
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