Queensland police threatened to raid a government-backed rehabilitation camp for First Nations children, demanding the rearrest of a 12-year-old boy who then fled into the bush “traumatised” and attempted suicide.
The following year police “ambushed” and arrested the same boy, then aged 13, while he was in the process of moving to another community – supported by youth justice and child safety authorities – to boost his rehabilitation prospects.
The police actions were discovered by a special Guardian Australia investigation – Written Off – in which multiple community workers, academics, youth justice employees and First Nations elders from regional Queensland have raised concerns that overtly punitive policing is actively hindering some young people from breaking the cycle of crime.
One Aboriginal teenage boy with intellectual disabilities, anonymised as Leo Horan, was subject to more than 100 street checks by police in Mount Isa, court documents show.
The magistrate Eoin Mac Giolla Ri said the boy was “scared of being at home” and caught in a “vicious circle”. “[He] would certainly feel some kind of labelling, if not a profound labelling, by the attention that he was receiving from police,” he said.
Ricky’s story
Ricky, 14, is an Aboriginal boy from north Queensland who is one of 400 children the state has designated “serious repeat offenders”. His name has been changed to protect his identity. He says he has been to the Cleveland youth detention centre more than a dozen times since he was 10, including for offences involving violence, burglaries, car thefts and dangerous driving in stolen cars.
Documents and emails seen by Guardian Australia reveal that in 2021, Ricky, then 12, was granted bail and attended a state government-backed on-country cultural rehabilitation program run by First Nations elders, in the remote bush. The programs are designed for repeat offenders with complex needs.
After Ricky was released from custody, police prosecutors successfully appealed to the supreme court to revoke his bail. The Queensland police service said in a statement that afterwards they had “sensitively negotiated the young person’s return to custody”.
But emails seen by the Guardian reveal the arrest “did not go to plan” and that organisers believed police actions had put the boy, staff and other young people at risk.
![Quote card: “I have damages to our work vehicle, we have a traumatised young person who [attempted suicide] and other young people who are now reluctant to come on our camps again because they feel we worked with QPS to get [Ricky] arrested.](https://media.guim.co.uk/a50e40dbe8e16d895d2a1013f775503c4f27cb2c/0_0_1081_578/1000.jpg)
One email, written by a youth worker, says that on learning that police intended to attend the site to arrest Ricky: “I immediately called the regional director of youth justice to express my grave concerns as to the risk to the young person, the camp and others if QPS were to attend.”
Negotiations ensued between police, youth justice officials and the camp’s organisers, who argued Ricky posed no risk to the community while at the camp, and that he should be given the chance to benefit from the program.
When these overtures failed, camp organisers reluctantly agreed to pull Ricky out of the program and drive him to waiting police, where he would be arrested, rather than have officers go to the site.
After learning he would be taken from the camp and returned directly to police custody, Ricky tried to run away, climbed a tree and attempted suicide, another email details.
“The plan that QPS had planned did not go to plan which put [Ricky], staff and other young people at risk,” says the email, which has names redacted.
“The chain of events that occurred when [Ricky] was informed he would be arrested were horrific.
“I have damages to our work vehicle, we have a traumatised young person who [attempted suicide] and other young people who are now reluctant to come on our camps again because they feel we worked with QPS to get [Ricky] arrested …
“Staff are furious and upset at what went down today. This has jeopardised our relationships with these young people, families and put our program at risk.”
A person involved with the camp, who asked not to be identified, said the program should have been “part of [Ricky’s] healing process”.
“We worked very hard to get him on that camp … and in the end it felt like we were setting him up to fail.”
Police said they “continue to work with young people, our community, and partner agencies to keep Queensland safe as we all have a responsibility to make a difference in the lives of young people”.
It felt like an ‘ambush’
A year later, police again arrested Ricky during a sanctioned attempt to escape the cycle of crime.
Documents show youth workers and government agencies – including youth justice and child safety – jointly arranged that when the boy left the Cleveland youth detention centre, he would travel with his father to escape difficult living circumstances and peer relationships in Cairns. They boarded a bus and went to another town, several hours’ drive away.
Plans were made to enrol Ricky in school, involve him in community activities, and link him with support services. He and his father were booked into accommodation. Every relevant government agency signed off on the relocation plan and police were alerted that he would be moving away after his release from detention.
When Ricky and his father arrived in the new town, local officers confronted Ricky and his father at the door of the bus. Ricky says what had felt like a fresh start ended in “an ambush”.
He was arrested on an old charge, which dated prior to his release from Cleveland, and held on remand at the police watch house. A youth worker involved in the relocation plan said they believed the charge was a “pretext” to prevent Ricky’s relocation because police would have had ample prior opportunity to pursue it.
Police said in a statement they had “consulted” with the Department of Youth Justice “in relation to the planned arrest of the young person on arrival in [the new town] to finalise … outstanding serious criminal matters”.
Ricky’s youth workers say police also contacted the hotel, which subsequently refused to let the boy and his father stay.
The boy was remanded at the watch house until his father could find alternative accommodation. They spent a couple of days at a caravan park, which police visited several times a day to conduct “checks”, before giving up and returning to Cairns.
Police said they had “acted in accordance with relevant legislation, policy and procedures”.
Communities feel ‘set upon’, ‘targeted’
The Queensland police service has sought to portray its role in youth justice as involving discretion, encouraging the use of diversion and addressing social causes of crime. But many in regional Queensland say this does not reflect the reality.
Some parents of children on the “serious repeat offender” list say police routinely turn up to premises demanding to check on children who live there, making families and communities feel “set upon” and “targeted” by law enforcement.
Jenny Pryor, a Bindal woman and a former commissioner of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, has compared the “rounding up” of First Nations children in Townsville to the removal of members of the stolen generations.
Pryor, a respected elder in the Townsville community, said there were clear differences in the way First Nations people were policed. She said there was “one law for this side, and one law for that side”.
“Communities are crying out to take back control of their kids but they need the resources to do it,” she said. “But they keep us in welfare, keep us incarcerated, and everyone’s got lots of jobs.”
Peter Malouf, an Indigenous academic from James Cook University in Townsville, said government policies had allowed police to take control of youth justice policy ahead of other agencies and organisations that were set up to provide social and community support.
He said policing approaches were often “heavy-handed”.
Studies have shown that young people who are stopped or arrested by police report “higher levels of delinquency”.
In a statement, the QPS said “intervention and rehabilitation for young offenders are crucial in breaking the cycle of crime and delivering long-term change”.
“Queensland Police have dedicated resources to deal with the small cohort of serious juvenile recidivist offenders. This cohort is causing a disproportionate amount of harm to community.
“We focus on reducing reoffending through intervention and support beyond detention, including a rigorous intensive multi-agency case management of each of the children in the serious recidivist offender cohort.”
Written Off seeks to detail the experiences of young people in Queensland’s justice system, where record numbers of children are being arrested and imprisoned. Know more? Contact ben.smee@theguardian.com
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
