Significant staff shortages have caused more than 30% of children at Cleveland detention centre to go without “meaningful rehabilitation” for up to 10 days at a time, a Queensland parliamentary committee has heard.
The youth justice reform select committee was told on Thursday that dwindling staff numbers were a “major factor” behind youth crime and recidivism in the state.
The Queensland branch secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, Stacey Schinnerl, said if there is less than one youth detention worker available for every four youth detainees, units remain in “night mode” – where children are confined to their cells for up to 23 hours a day.
Schinnerl said “a snap shot” between Monday of last week and Wednesday this week showed an average of five units were in night mode each day.
This means more than 30% of young people at Cleveland youth detention centre are not receiving “meaningful rehabilitation” on any single day of those 10 days, she said.
“This [staff] shortage contributes to workers being assaulted in these workplaces and it is impacting the delivery of programs designed to rehabilitate youth offenders while they are in detention,” she told the committee.
Schinnerl said in the first six months of 2023 there had been 140 reported assaults on staff in the state’s youth detention centres – an average of five each week.
The union advocated for adults – who were children when they entered youth detention – to be urgently moved out of the centres.
Schinnerl said as of Wednesday, there were 27 adults in youth detention centres, with at least six more people set to turn 18 in the next three months. Meanwhile, 30 young people are in adult watch houses.
“[Youth detention centres] could be freed up right now if these adult detainees were moved to adult correctional facilities,” she said.
“It is the firm position of my union that adults have no place residing in youth detention.
“Our members report that adult offenders tend to be physically larger and stronger than the younger detainees, meaning the effect of their violence towards others within the detention centres tends to be more severe.”
The chief executive of the Youth Advocacy Centre, Katherine Hayes, told the committee that serious repeat offenders should not be placed in residential care.
“We think that’s setting them up to fail,” she said.
Hayes said YAC provides bail and housing support for children but due to a lack of funding her organisation is frequently forced to turn children away.
She said about 200 young people who sought housing were turned away from the YAC program this year.
“These homeless kids don’t have anywhere to go,” she said.
Hayes said the state’s political conversation and tabloid coverage have created roadblocks for improving outcomes for both children and the community.
“I think they’re the big barriers to [have a] political backbone to make a courageous decision about having to implement evidence-based solutions that work.”
