Justice Reform Initiative Media Release, 18 July 2024
The Justice Reform Initiative has called for the Queensland government to urgently reverse its position on holding children in police watch houses designed for adults, with the latest footage providing further proof that this environment causes immense harm to children.
Justice Reform Initiative Executive Director Dr Mindy Sotiri said the government could not ignore the mounting evidence that children – many of whom have significant disabilities – are being mistreated in watch houses.
“The government has cited the need to keep the community safe as the basis for locking children up, but there’s overwhelming evidence that shows holding children in inhumane conditions will traumatise them and entrench behaviour that makes future offending much more likely,” she said.
“Locking children in watch houses is a deeply misguided approach that causes long-term harm to children, their families and the community. Children and young people are still developing neurologically and often come from backgrounds of trauma, which is exacerbated by the appalling treatment they receive while they are in the care of the state.
“Queensland urgently needs to reverse its thinking and instead take an evidence-based approach to protect children and keep the community safe. This means stopping the harmful practice of using adult police watch-houses to lock up children.
“The existing policy settings are driving far too many children into custody, and do not work to keep the community safe. We need to respond to over-crowding in prisons by investing in community-led alternatives to incarceration and bail alternatives. And we need to stop the harmful use of adult watch-houses for children.
Advocates across Queensland have alerted Governments for years that watchhouse environments cause extraordinary harm. In April this year, the Justice Reform Initiative along with other concerned organisations in Queensland wrote to the QLD Premier raising again our urgent safety concerns for children currently held in watch-houses. We warned the Premier that children were being harmed, and also noted that we anticipate the death of a child in a watch-house if the current conditions continue.
Media contact: Pia Akerman 0412 346 746
The Initiative respectfully acknowledges and supports the current and longstanding efforts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reduce the numbers of Indigenous people incarcerated in Australia and, importantly, the leadership role which Indigenous-led organisations continue to play on this issue. We also acknowledge the work of many other individuals and organisations seeking change, such as those focused on the rate of imprisonment for women, people with mental health issues, people with disability and others.