The “padded cells” at the Cairns police watch house have walls like concrete. The floor slopes down to a grate at the front that, an officer says, collects “urine, blood, whatever, that goes slowly towards the drain”. A CCTV image obtained by Guardian Australia offers a rare glimpse into the sorts of rooms being used to hold children in Queensland watch houses, where they are kept indefinitely – sometimes for several weeks – waiting for a bed in the overcrowded youth detention system.
The violent detention cell in Cairns has no toilet or running water. Sources say it has been used to hold some of the most vulnerable children in the lockup, including those with intellectual disabilities or exhibiting mental illness, who become distressed and violent during long periods inside.
