Miles Government endangering children in race-to-the-bottom on youth imprisonment

The Human Rights Law Centre has slammed the Miles Government for putting children’s lives in danger after plans were announced to remove detention as a last resort' from Queensland’s youth justice laws.

The decision is inconsistent with international human rights standards which make it clear that children should only ever be detained as 'a measure of last resort'. 

Queensland already locks up more children than any other Australian jurisdiction, with alarming numbers of children subjected to horrendous conditions in police and prison cells across the state. Due to ongoing government failures, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to be locked away at disproportionate rates.

This decision follows the Queensland Child Death Review Board report published earlier this year which found that two Indigenous boys died preventable deaths after being locked away for considerable periods of time in youth prisons.

Earlier this year, the Human RIghts Law Centre and Change the Record called on the Miles Government to overhaul the state’s youth legal system via the now disbanded Youth Justice Reform Select Committee and:

  • End the detaining 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.

Quotes attributed to Monique Hurley, Managing Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre: 

“Children do not belong in police and prison cells. This politically calculated decision by Premier Miles to remove 'detention as a last resort' from the state’s youth justice laws is inconsistent with international human rights standards and risks more children being locked away across Queensland.

“The Miles Government should stop playing politics and start working towards a future where no child is locked away behind bars in the first place. The evidence is clear that a responsible government would be building up community supports instead of enacting knee-jerk responses that only serve to lock more children away.”

Media contact:
Thomas Feng
Acting Engagement Director
Human Rights Law Centre
0431 285 275
thomas.feng@hrlc.org.au

Thomas FengAboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Rights