The treatment of a disabled Aboriginal teenager at Queensland’s Cleveland Youth Detention Centre – where he was likely locked in solitary confinement for more than 500 days – is “the most egregious” case on record in Australia, according to a longstanding Indigenous rights campaigner.
Guardian Australia reported on Monday that the teenager, Michael*, now 19, was regularly kept in his room for more than 20 hours during 744 days at Cleveland.
This was overwhelmingly due to chronic staff shortages at the centre.
Human rights organisations say the case likely amounts to “torture” and a breach of Queensland’s own Human Rights Act.
Rodney Dillon, a Palawa man and an Indigenous rights adviser to Amnesty International, said the case must be investigated.
“I’ve never heard of anyone spending that long in solitary confinement, but I can understand, when there’s that little respect for our kids in this system, how this can happen,” Dillon said.
“This system is not about looking after human beings, this is about torture. It’s a torture chamber, that’s what it is.
“The effect this will have on this kid’s life is irreparable. That kid will be damaged for the rest of his life; that kid will never, ever move on from what’s happened. That is the worst thing you can do to any human being, is put them in solitary confinement … We need to change this system, the racism that’s in this system, and the hatred.”
Josephine Langbien, the acting managing lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said Michael’s treatment “calls into question the Queensland government’s compliance with its own Human Rights Act, which is supposed to protect against the use of cruel and degrading prison practices like solitary confinement, which in certain cases can amount to torture”.
“Solitary confinement is a shockingly cruel practice that can cause irreparable harm. It is barbaric that the Palaszczuk government permits young people to be locked alone in concrete cells for days, months or years on end,” Langbien said.
In a statement on Monday, the youth justice minister, Di Farmer, argued that detailed logbooks showed Michael had “spent varied amounts of time out of [his] room … where safe to do so”.
This included time to attend programs, including school and to “receive assistance from the on-site multidisciplinary teams including health services”, Farmer said.
Farmer claimed that logbooks showed Michael’s extensive periods in “separation” – a formal status applied to young people at the prison during staffing shortages and other incidents – did not always amount to solitary confinement.
But Guardian Australia’s reporting relied on detailed information from those logbooks – supplied to the court by the detention centre – to determine how long he would have been confined to his cell.
The logbook data showed that out of 175 sample days across two years, Michael was confined to his cell for more than 20 hours on 125 days. Assuming the indicative sample from youth justice was a fair representation of Michael’s time at Cleveland, he would have spent 530 days in solitary confinement for more than 20 hours.
Evidence in court is at odds with Farmer’s claims that Michael – who later plead guilty to rape, sexual assault and robbery – had regular access to services, including education and appropriate health treatment.
Of the 175 sample days, Michael saw a teacher twice. A staff member from the detention centre said children were given education packs, which they completed alone, during separation periods.
Michael has intellectual disabilities and was referred to the adolescent forensic mental health service upon arriving at Cleveland in 2021.
But the court heard he received no treatment because the service did not have the capacity to see young people with trauma-related mental health issues.
