Children hurt by Queensland Government’s race-to-the-bottom on youth justice
Change the Record and the Human Rights Law Centre are calling on the Miles Government to overhaul the state’s outdated, punitive youth justice system and redirect funding towards a future where no child grows up in a prison cell.
Almost every day there’s another report of the horrendous conditions for children in Queensland’s youth justice system, which is in a state of perpetual, deepening crisis. Discriminatory and unfair laws pipeline more and more children into police watch houses, where they are left to languish in solitary confinement and deprived of healthcare, education, food, natural light, sleep, hygiene and social interaction.
In a joint submission to the Queensland Government’s Youth Justice Reform Select Committee, the organisations called on the Miles Government to:
End the detention of children in inhumane police watch house cells;
Raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, with no exceptions; and
Abolish reverse onus bail laws unnecessarily trapping children in police and prison cells.
Rather than endlessly fund police and prisons, a responsible Queensland Government would build up community supports and properly resource evidence-based, community-led, self-determined healthcare, housing and education.
Quotes attributed to Maggie Munn, National Director, Change the Record:
“The Queensland government has a dangerous and prolonged track record for overriding its own Human Rights Act and violating children rights on a level that is unprecedented in Australia.
“Right now, children, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children with disability, are being subjected to human rights abuses in the form of solitary confinement and being deprived of the healthcare, housing and education they need to live a healthy childhood.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have always the solutions to keep children strong, healthy and connected to culture. Yet the Queensland Government refuses to listen.”
Quotes attributed to Monique Hurley, Managing Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre:
“The Miles Government is fuelling a race-to-the-bottom on youth justice laws which is funnelling more children into police and prison cells across Queensland. The conditions that children are being locked away in for days and weeks on end in police watch house cells are brutal, barbaric and causing irreparable harm - no child should ever be caged in an adult police watch house cell.
“Children do not belong in police and prison cells. Every child deserves to grow up with the love, care and support they need. The Queensland Government should be working towards a future where no child is locked away in the first place. The evidence is clear that we need to build up community supports instead of shovelling endless amounts of money into prisons and policing. The Miles Government needs to grow a backbone and act.”
Media contacts:
Thomas Feng
Human Rights Law Centre
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au
Rachel McFadden
Change the Record
0415894648
rachel@changetherecord.org.au