Queensland's youth justice department will conduct an urgent review into how long a 13-year-old boy was held in solitary confinement at a Townsville youth detention centre.
The full audit is being prepared to calculate the precise number of hours the child spent alone in his cell during his incarceration.
The Indigenous child — referred to as Jack — spent 45 days locked in his cell for 24 hours, including one stretch in isolation for 22 days and another for 14 days, according to evidence presented to the Cairns Children Court last Friday.
The information was prepared by the youth justice department, but Minister Leanne Linard insists the one-page excel spreadsheet provided to the court was not a "fulsome" account of what happened to the child during the 60 days he spent at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre on remand.
Speaking on ABC RN Breakfast, Ms Linard said it was "not the case" that the child spent prolonged periods in solitary confinement and the department had confirmed he was "attending programs and interacting with peers and staff".
Asked how long the child was out of his cell between periods of confinement, the minister said, "I can't tell you how many hours between those individual incidents".
Michael Drane, the executive director of youth detention operations, told the ABC the audit of Jack's time in and out of his cell was underway but it was "complex".
He said logs and information he had seen as a sample of Jack's treatment "tells me that that particular young person had access to programs and was out interacting with peers on (the) majority of days he was held in detention".
He agreed with the teenager's claims that at times children were left in their cells longer than was ideal or required under the Act due to staff shortages.
"Regrettably that does occur, obviously separation is used as a last resort though," he said.
"Lack of staff is an issue like all industries we are encountering staff shortages particularly in regional locations like in Townsville."
Mr Drane said his department needs to "unequivocally do better" to provide detailed information to the court.
"And we will," he said.
"We certainly gave the most information we had available to us within the time frame the courts requested."
Mr Drane said the information currently taken from multiple sources including log books, registers and other records.
He said the process was "manually intensive", taking staff away from operational duties, and a more sophisticated IT system was required as an "urgent fix".
'It was so stressful'
However, in an interview with the ABC in Cairns, Jack's mother said her son was adamant he was locked in his cell for days on end and often only allowed out for 30 minutes a day for a phone call.
International human rights rules require at least two hours of out of cell time per day.
The boy told his mother during an initial 14-day stay at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre last year, he spent the first three days alone in his cell.
Jack's mother said he insists he was not allowed out during this time.
For the remaining 11 days, she said Jack told her he was only allowed out of his cell for 30 minutes per day to make a phone call.
"He told me, 'No, I come out and make phone calls. I can only make phone calls'. It was like 10 minute phone calls every day," she said.
She said that Jack said he was angry and frustrated.
"It was so stressful," she said.
While the minister said that Jack could interact with his peers, Jack's mother said he told her that was not the case during his first period of detention last year.
He told her: "No. We were not allowed to come out [out our cells] ... We had to talk behind our doors."
During a second period at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre this year, the department's out-of-cell hours records, presented to the court, reveal that over a 36-day period he was allowed out of his cell on only five occasions.
Jack's mother said he told her that during this time he had more freedom, but only when there was sufficient staff to supervise the children.
She said he told her the staff refused to provide him with fresh drinking water after complaining the water coming out of the tap in his room was dirty and undrinkable.
In response, she said her son became angry and flushed the toilet repeatedly and turned on the shower to flood his cell. He was placed in isolation.
Jack was released on probation last Friday with a verbal reprimand on charges relating to a fight outside a fast food outlet and other charges relating to drinking stolen alcohol, breaking into a house and stealing $6 and attempting to steal a car.
The prosecution did not seek a jail term.
The child's barrister Tim Grau, said, "the information was tendered in the court by a department officer".
"If the information is incorrect the minister or department should inform the court and release the correct data," he said.
He noted the child was reprimanded and released on parole based on information provided to the court, including details about the nature of his time in youth detention.
'Detention not changing his behaviour'
Jack's mother said she was worried about his safety while he was in isolation in detention.
"I felt angry. He was entitled to be out and about with other kids," she said.
"I just feel like I'm losing my boy to the world," she said.
"This ongoing detention is not changing his behaviour. He keeps making the same mistakes. It's not working," she said.
"He's a hard headed kid but I love him."
The minister's spokesperson said the department has to "do better".
Meanwhile, the former president of the Queensland children's court, John Robertson, said Jack's detention may have been unlawful under Queensland's Youth Justice Act.
"It might well have been unlawful," Mr Robertson said.
"You'd have to look at all the circumstances. If this has occurred, it is horrific, shocking that this could happen in a civilised society."
Under the principles outlined in the Act, "the youth justice system should uphold the rights of children, keep them safe and promote their physical and mental wellbeing. The child should be treated with respect and dignity, including while the child is in custody."
Mr Robertson said the circumstances of Jack's detention appear to "run contrary to all the principles and the act itself".
He said it was "disturbing" that inaccurate or incomplete information was provided to the court about Jack's out of cell hours.
"The department has a statutory obligation to provide information to the court on how long the child has been in pre-sentence custody," Mr Robertson said.
"There is a duty to ensure that it is accurate."
Queensland parliament today passed tough new laws criminalising bail breaches by children, a move likely to increase the number of children in detention.
Queensland has the highest remand rate of children in detention in Australia, according to Queensland's Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall.
