The Queensland government has failed to act on the findings of a report that lays bare the “devastating” experiences of people with disabilities in the criminal justice system, including allegations of brutality, mistreatment and other failures.
Guardian Australia has obtained the unpublished report, commissioned by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General in 2022, that details the experiences of people living with disability, including in police watch houses.
It follows an investigation by Guardian Australia and SBS’s The Feed revealed footage showing the “abominable” treatment of young people in police watch houses and isolation cells, including a 13-year-old girl with a severe intellectual disability.
Guardian Australia obtained the full, unpublished report, more than a year after it was tabled, via a Right to Information application.
The report contained allegations of police brutality and raised concerns that “police actions could lead to escalation of behaviour in a person rather than de-escalation”.
In 2022, the department commissioned a team of seven University of Queensland academics to compile “insights from people with lived experience of disability and the justice system”. The research was completed in June 2023 and included 40 recommendations, including the need to develop a state disability justice strategy.
But those experiences and the recommendations of the report, were then buried and never publicly released. A brief 10-page summary of the research was published by the university, but this omitted both the first-hand accounts and the calls for reform.
The report details case studies, including that of Michael, a man living with a psychosocial disability, recalled being put in a police cell.
“You’ve got these three little fucking squared bits of mattress to lay on, just with a shitty little blanket, no pillows. No pillow. You’ve got to use … your clothes. And it’s always really cold in the watch house.”
JA, a man with a cognitive and psychosocial disability, said he was arrested in a physical altercation with police. He said he was “unregulated” at the time, and that police had “slammed” him against a wall and into the ground.
He was taken to the watch house and stripped of his clothing, as he said the police thought he was suicidal.
“I was really scared because they took my socks off and my underwear and threw a towel at me to put on,” he said.
Robert, a First Nations man with a psychosocial disability, recalled an incident that allegedly occurred when he was 15.
“When I was younger I was sniffing glue and we ran from the cops. And the cop was running, he was a big fella, and I was like, ‘You need to lose some weight, mate’ … So he grabbed me by my hoodie and started slamming my head into the ground.
“That’s why they didn’t charge me. They just let me go … If he charged me, I would’ve told the judge.”
The report said the recollections showed “the ways in which people with disability may feel trapped within abusive and exploitative relationships, and thereby coerced into offending” or not understand what constitutes illegal behaviour.
It detailed cases where people were “interviewed without an independent third party or support” and where police “subsequently failed to modify their communication practices … and participants were left feeling confused, anxious, and unheard.”
“While the findings in this report represent perspectives of the criminal justice system from a select number of people, the accounts consistently illustrate how involvement in the [system] can have devastating impact on the lives of people with disability and their families,” the report said.
The report’s recommendations include the need to develop a Queensland disability justice strategy, and a First Nations disability justice strategy, to better support, assess and recognise disability within the system.
The chief executive officer of Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion, Matilda Alexander, has reviewed the report and said it demonstrated “the multi-layered failures of the criminal justice system for people with disability”. Alexander said it should have been publicly released.
“This report demonstrates that each level of the criminal justice system, from police to courts to prison to parole, fails people with disability. In doing so, it fails the community more broadly.”
Alexander said that if the recommendations had been implemented, including the development of a disability justice strategy, it may have reduced crime.
The department rejected suggestions it had “blocked” the release of the report. It said it routinely commissioned and sought advice from academics and that their work was “not necessarily proactively released”.
A department spokesperson said it had released the report to Guardian Australia via Right to Information. That release only occurred after the Guardian became aware of the report via government sources and sought a copy.
The spokesperson said the state had committed to consider all relevant recommendations from the disability royal commission and that it was “currently considering” the University of Queensland report in the context of those recommendations.
“The Queensland government is committed to listening to the voices, concerns and needs of those interacting with the justice system, including the one in five Queenslanders with a disability,” a department spokesperson said.
“The report and relevant recommendations will also inform the state’s future work in this area.”
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