Queensland is systematically breaching human rights by locking up more children in police watch houses, Australia's National Children's Commissioner says.
Anne Hollonds also believes governments are wasting money on youth justice measures that aren't making the community safer.
Her criticism of Queensland – as well as other states using similar practices – places further pressure on the Palaszczuk government to put human rights concerns ahead of a "tough on crime" line.
As the government considers building a fourth youth detention centre in Queensland – potentially in Cairns – Commissioner Hollonds said a new facility was not the solution to youth crime.
"The evidence shows that locking up children does not reduce offending, in fact it has the opposite effect that time spent in prison actually leads to more time spent in prison," she said.
"I believe we're wasting public money on approaches that are not keeping the community safer and I think politicians need to own up to that."
Children left with adult detainees
It comes as the ABC can reveal new details about the legal challenge brought by three young people who claim their stay in a Queensland police watch house breached their human rights.
The trio – aged 14, 16, and 18 – claim their time in the Cairns police watch house exceeded two days and that children were not fully segregated from adult detainees.
It is being dealt with in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal as a representative action, which means the outcome could impact the ongoing use of watch houses for other young people.
While declining to comment on that ongoing legal case, Commissioner Hollonds said, in general, watch houses were "no places for children".
"Locking up children in police watch houses is a breach of numerous human rights conventions. It should never be happening," she said.
"The fact that it's happening is a sign that our systems have failed."
In September, ABC's 7.30 program revealed Queensland's Office of the Public Guardian had made multiple complaints in 2021-22 to the department and police on behalf of children who had experienced prolonged stays in watch houses.
Katie Acheson, the outgoing CEO of the Youth Advocacy Centre, recalled a 16-year-old girl who had been deemed unfit for trial due to complex mental health issues stemming from trauma.
"She wasn't given bail, and so she was held in the watch house for six days and during that time, she had no access to her treatment," she told 7.30.
"We saw an immediate deterioration for her mental health, and when she got out, she was significantly impacted by six days of trauma essentially."
Calls to fund measures that 'actually work'
Revelations by ABC's Four Corners in 2019 showed children had been held for weeks in adult watch houses — including one in isolation for 23 days — prompting the Queensland government to remove most children from police watch houses.
But that changed when a spate of deaths last year sparked a massive youth crime crackdown – including reversing the presumption of bail for some serious offences.
Since then, the government has been under escalating pressure from victims of crime and the Opposition to crack down further.
Commissioner Hollonds said she completely understood the community's outrage and fear around youth crime.
"It's just not acceptable that these incidents occur that cause tremendous harm to individuals and in the community," she said.
"[But] what we need to do is actually sit down and work out — well how can we make this stop?
"The good news is there are things we can do that actually work better to reduce crime and to keep the community safer.
"This is a task we need to pull together on across the country, frankly, to ensure that we're investing our money in things that actually work.
"That is, reforming the upstream systems of care and support that will actually help children to remain connected at school and to grow up well in the community.
"Those basic public systems that are meant to be supporting families to raise their children to be safe and well need to be reformed because they're currently not fit for purpose."
She also said she was concerned about the conditions in custody, which were causing further harm to children who already had pre-existing disabilities, trauma and mental health issues.
In a statement, Queensland's Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard said the state had the "toughest" bail laws for serious repeat juvenile offenders, which meant "more young people are being detained and for longer".
She said the government remained "firmly committed to community safety" and that forecasts indicated more permanent infrastructure would be needed.
Fourth youth detention centre 'inevitable' amid rising number of detainees
Cairns is one of several sites across the state being considered as a possible location for another youth detention centre.
Commissioner Hollonds said building another facility was the "inevitable outcome" of the strengthened youth bail laws.
"There's also a sense the community wants their kids to be closer to them and not have to go down to Brisbane, for example," she said.
"It makes sense to me that this might be a pathway forward, but it isn't a solution to the problem of youth offending in Queensland.
"What we should be doing instead of building more youth detention centres is investing the money to prevent youth crime, reduce offending rates, and to keep the community safer."
There is increasing pressure on the youth detention system with rising numbers of detainees.
As of 6am on Monday October 31, there were 291 young people in Queensland's youth detention centres.
Of them, 195 were Indigenous.
The government was unable to say how many of the total current number of youth detainees were on a child protection order, but the latest data at 30 June, showed 86 of 270 youth detainees had an active order then.
There were also 34 children in police watch houses, as of Tuesday November 1.
Neither police nor the government would detail how long each had been there, but a Queensland police spokesperson said young people were held in custody for an average of 1.8 days.
The spokesperson said, "where and when a young person is transferred from a watch house to a youth detention centre is entirely at the discretion" of the department.
They also said young people were segregated from all other prisoners.
Ms Linard said young people were held as part of normal processing, including arranging transport to a youth detention centre, and that her department "works closely with police to ensure young people are not held in watch houses any longer than required".
'We're locking up more children'
Advocates said they have continued to see young people in detention and watch houses for extended periods and will continue to call for their removal.
Commissioner Hollonds agreed consistent, regular public reporting of data around children in youth detention and watch houses was important.
"If it's not possible to regularly get updates on numbers of children being detained in watch houses and detention centres, there's a problem," she said.
"There should be transparency about this."
"Particularly now because we're locking up more children because of the toughened bail laws [so] it's even more important.
"Otherwise we can't say we're actually able to assure ourselves as a community that these children are getting the proper care they need."
She said youth detention was in a "state of crisis" across the country and governments needed to work together to reform the system and reduce offending rates.
"I would hope they would have the political will to look at this problem in the face, together with their colleagues across the jurisdictions, and to now reform the way we deal with youth crime," she said.
Ms Linard said there was "encouraging progress" through programs including restorative justice conferencing, case management, bail support service, initiatives that engage young people in school or training, and co-responder teams.
"However, we know a group of serious repeat offenders is causing a disproportionate amount of harm in the community – they make up a significant proportion of young people in custody," she said.
The government is also still considering the findings of former Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson's six-month review of the government's youth justice reforms.
Ms Linard said the report, along with the next Youth Justice Action Plan, would be released soon.
