Children should never be subjected to solitary confinement
By Monique Hurley,
Legal Director
Human Rights Law Centre
Kids should not be in prisons, and they definitely should not be in prisons right now.
Youth prisons are hot spots for the transmission of COVID-19. They are closed, crowded environments where physical distancing is impossible. Once the virus enters a youth prison, it risks spreading like wildfire. In the US, the top 13 COVID-19 hotspots are in prisons, and more than 1000 young people in detention have tested positive for the virus.
For months, there has been a chorus of calls across the country for state and territory governments to reduce the number of children in youth prisons as part of the public health response to COVID-19. The threat posed by COVID-19 to kids in prison extends beyond contracting the virus and includes the punitive steps taken in response to a potential outbreak.
This year, we have seen children locked down in prison cells across Victoria. More recently we have seen children as young as 13 locked down indefinitely in Queensland. We understand that the children being detained in the Brisbane youth prison are "locked down" and have largely been confined to their cells for weeks following a worker testing positive for COVID-19.
Lockdowns can be code for the damaging and archaic tool that is solitary confinement. In other words, children in the Brisbane youth prison are likely spending 22 or more hours a day isolated in a concrete cell – similar in size to a single car park space – often with limited access to education, fresh air, human interaction and mental health support.
Solitary confinement is a gruesome prison tool. Abuse thrives behind bars and children trapped in the legal system – rather than being with their families and in their communities – are increasingly being subjected to practices such as solitary confinement in lieu of adequate health care and other support services to address the underlying causes of so-called "challenging" behaviours.
That’s why international human rights law strictly prohibits the use of the traumatic practice on children.
Almost 30 years ago, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found that solitary confinement has a detrimental impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison. It is unacceptable and speaks volumes about systemic racism that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children – who make up 61 per cent of children under youth justice supervision in Queensland – remain so over-represented and therefore disproportionately impacted by harsh prison responses to COVID-19.
The silence of the Palaszczuk government, which owes a duty of care to the children in its custody, is damning. This is particularly the case when a much simpler and safer solution exists. Most children in Queensland prisons are there on pre-trial detention and have not been found guilty or sentenced for any offence.
They should be granted bail to live safely in the community. This should be happening all the time, and especially during a public health crisis. Provisions also exist in the statute books for children to be released on parole, or to be granted a temporary leave of absence.
In the context of the threats posed by COVID-19, this needs to be done as a priority, given the unequivocal evidence that solitary confinement can severely and irreversibly harm children’s health and wellbeing. Longer-term, governments across Australia should be focused on getting kids out of prisons.
By doing nothing, the Palaszczuk government is forcing children to survive the COVID-19 pandemic locked in concrete prison cells by themselves. It reflects a lack of bravery, with the same government having already scrapped a sensible plan to parole people in prison a few days early to help them find flights home during the pandemic.
The pandemic presents an opportunity to reimagine our criminal legal system and the damage it causes to the kids that become entangled in its web. To keep kids safe during the pandemic, governments must opt for release over subjecting children to the brutality of solitary confinement. Beyond this, governments must recognise that we are all better off when children are in playgrounds and classrooms, not behind bars.