Last month, Queensland police officers went to the address of 12-year-old Noah Jackson at least 13 times in 17 days to check if he was home.
Noah (a pseudonym from the children’s court) is an Indigenous boy with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, living at a residential care home in the state’s west. He is also one of an increasing number of Queensland children ordered to abide by a 24-hour home curfew.
Police charged him with 17 counts of breaching his bail over 19 days under Queensland’s new laws that criminalise technical breaches of conditions.
A Guardian Australia special investigation into Queensland’s youth justice system has found an increasing number of young people have been made subject to harsh restrictions as part of their bail conditions, including orders that impose 24-hour curfews.
In some cases, those orders force children to stay with alleged family violence abusers.
Young people with strict conditions, like Noah, have been targeted by aggressive police monitoring tactics, including almost daily “curfew checks” or street checks, which trigger additional charges.
Lawyers and social workers say the situation – on top of the new laws that make bail breaches on offence – effectively “criminalises innocent behaviour” and leaves some children to choose between risking arrest or remaining in unsafe circumstances.
Guardian Australia is aware of an Indigenous boy, 13, who is subject to a 24-hour curfew on an order that says he has to live at an overcrowded premises that houses more than a dozen people from multiple families. Two men who live at the premises have a history of family violence.
He is allowed to leave only to attend school or appointments.
The chief executive of the Youth Advocacy Centre, Katherine Hayes, said the organisation is supporting another boy, also 13, who has been living on the streets for six months.
His bail conditions say that he must reside at home.
“He says his stepfather is abusive so he doesn’t feel safe at home,” Hayes said.
“It’s now a crime for him not to go home.”
Hayes said the introduction of a criminal offence for children breaching bail conditions had effectively “criminalised innocent behaviour”.
Another boy, 15, was banned from travelling as a passenger in a car without a youth justice worker present, the Brisbane Times recently reported.
In the case of Noah Jackson, the boy was ordered to remain at a residential care home unless he was attending school or in the company of a worker from the home.
Magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri said Noah had “experienced significant trauma and some of his actions, i.e. spending time on the street, are undoubtedly trauma responses”.
He faced court in May and June. His charge sheet included 21 offences from 4 May to 23 May. Four of those were allegations of unlawfully entering a premises. He was charged with 17 counts of breaking his bail conditions over that period.
The Queensland human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, said the current situation highlighted “the limits of relying on police to lead the response to incredibly complex social problems.”
“Many children and young people in the justice system have challenging circumstances and complex needs,” McDougall said.
“[There are] circumstances and needs which are not being properly recognised or addressed by strict and unreasonable bail conditions, especially those which make children less safe or punish them for trauma they’ve previously experienced at the hands of people and systems which should be working to protect them.
“Our systems are letting them down and perpetuating cycles of trauma and harm, and they’re doing so at great cost to these children individually and the community more broadly.”
In the first two months since the state made “breach of bail” a criminal offence for children – overriding the government’s own Human Rights Act – Queensland police charged 169 young people for breaches to conditions, including an 11-year-old. Two-thirds of the children charged are Indigenous.
Police have the ability to arrest children they “reasonably suspect” of breaching their conditions. Police tactics also involve conducting persistent “street checks” on certain young people. Court documents show one boy, aged 16, was subject to more than 100 checks by officers.
Multiple parents of young people in north Queensland have told Guardian Australia that police will routinely knock on their door in the middle of the night to conduct curfew checks on children subject to conditions.
Recent research shows that First Nations children experiencing domestic and family violence are being funnelled into risk-taking and criminal behaviour by failures in the child protection, youth justice and other support systems.
The report said unsafe home environments and a lack of safe places to go to escape family violence create conditions in which young people become entangled in the justice system.
The Queensland police service said in a statement that bail conditions were determined “on a case by case basis”.
“Curfews are one condition which can be imposed by the police or court to address specific risks the young person poses if released on bail.
“A young person’s bail conditions may include, among other things, a curfew, reporting to a local police station or not contacting particular persons.
“Youth offending is a challenging, complex issue impacted by underlying factors such as social dysfunction, substance abuse, domestic violence, family dynamics and dysfunction and access to social services and support.”
Written Off seeks to detail the experiences of young people in Queensland’s justice system, where record numbers of children are being arrested and imprisoned. Know more? Contact ben.smee@theguardian.com
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
