Sick and suicidal children are being held in Queensland police watch houses for weeks without receiving any medical or psychological care, according to a new report from the state’s youth detention watchdog that warns of “catastrophic consequences”.
The report, tabled on Wednesday by the Queensland inspector of detention services, Anthony Reilly, followed inspections of watch houses at Cairns and Murgon.
The conclusion was blunt: these places were “not suitable for detaining children”.
The report documents many of the issues raised in reports by Guardian Australia since January, including a series of videos and stories which revealed the distressing treatment of children in Queensland police custody, many of them disabled, and some left screaming, freezing, and struggling to breathe in isolation cells.
Queensland’s youth justice policies have resulted in record numbers of children in the detention system. Last year the state government suspended its own Human Rights Act to allow children to be kept for extended periods in police watch houses.
Reilly’s report found that facilities at Cairns and Murgon were not suitable for the extended detention of children.
He documented several case studies, including Sam*, a 13-year-old girl with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder who was depicted in CCTV footage published by Guardian Australia and SBS The Feed.
In another case, a child in Cairns disclosed to police after their arrest that they had attempted to cut their throat during the past two days. The child was held in the watch house for 17 days and during that time “there was no evidence of any referrals or assessment by any external mental health service provider”.
Another child, admitted to Cairns, told police they had consumed methamphetamine, had a chest infection, and had recently attempted to self-harm, including a suicide attempt while in custody.
The child did not see a nurse for the chest infection for eight days, by which time they had “sore ribs, a blocked nose, fever and stomach cramps”.
“When their condition had not improved by day 13, the nurse administered medication,” the report found.
There was no record of the child being administered medication for a neurological condition. Over 18 days, the child was involved in four “incidents”, including a serious alleged assault on another child and a watch house officer.
“Prolonged detention of children in this type of environment can significantly affect [children’s] wellbeing,” the report said.
“We are concerned that self-harm/suicide risks or significant health and medical issues may not be identified through the admission process. This would leave a child, who may subsequently spend many days or even weeks detained in the watch-house, with unaddressed risks or medical needs. The consequences could be catastrophic.
“Failing to identify significant cognitive issues may expose very vulnerable children to harm, for example, from those with whom they share a cell.
“The failure to identify a serious self-harm risk may also have dire consequences. We are also concerned that Youth Justice prioritisation decisions for admission to a youth detention centre are being made with incomplete or incorrect information.”
At Murgon, the inspection identified a child who was effectively in isolation for 12 days straight, as they were the only child in the watch house during this period.
The report said children who are placed in isolation, or in padded cells, are not protected by the same safeguards as those in youth detention centres or adult prisons. Officers can isolate children without any overarching approval process; there is no reporting or oversight of the use of isolation in watch houses and no requirement for a child to be assessed by a health practitioner before or after.
The inspection assessed the physical environment in both Cairns and Murgon.
In Cairns there was a lack of natural light, children “locked in their cells for substantial periods of time”, overcrowding and a lack of privacy. In Murgon, children had “absolutely no access to fresh air during the period of detention”.
In some cases, the separation of children from adults – required under police procedures and international human rights law obligations – was not occurring effectively. Boys and girls had been held in the men’s and women’s units at Cairns.
“We are concerned that it provides an opportunity for an adult detainee to communicate with a child,” the report said.
“This could mean verbal abuse, threats or other inappropriate communication.
“In the Cairns watch-house, we saw children using their mattresses to surround themselves in an attempt to get privacy when using the toilet. We were advised that this is a common practice, and that children do the same at Murgon.
“The shower area has no door.”
The report said the facilities were inadequate for children, but acknowledge that due to state policies it was likely that the practice of keeping young people in watch houses would continue.
“Based on the information in this report, it is clear that the detention of children in watch-houses creates the risk of harm and that it should be avoided. If detained in a watch-house, children should be held for the minimum time possible, and transferred to a more suitable facility as soon as possible.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
