Jury out on bail houses: Farmer

THE jury is still out on Townsville’s controversial bail houses, according to Minister for Child Safety, Youth and Women Di Farmer, who expects a final report into the program to be delivered to her shortly.

Two bail houses have been operating in Townsville for the better part of two years, placing children accused of crimes in residential streets in Mundingburra and West End.

The Government initially intended to open the Supervised Community Accommodation (or SCA) facilities in nine locations spread across the state but to date just two houses in Townsville and two in southeast Queensland have been established.

Ms Farmer previously confirmed there were no plans to open more facilities but would not commit to closing the Townsville houses until a final report has been submitted.

Bail houses were viewed as a means to address overcrowding in youth detention centres by reducing Queensland’s rate of youth on remand, which consistently sits above 80 per cent.

The Government initially promised a report into the lengthy “trial” of the program in early 2019.

Youth Justice director-general Bob Gee received a report from Griffith University several months ago but was unhappy and asked for more detail.

“I am expecting Bob to hand me a report in the very near future. Bob has commissioned an evaluation into those SCAS and we need to have a look at the way they are working,” Ms Farmer said.

CERTAINLY THE FINAL REPORT WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONCE I HAVE HAD A LOOK AT IT AND WE’VE DECIDED WHAT WE WANT TO DO WITH THE INFORMATION

“The whole concept of the SCAS was based on some models that have existed in other places, New York for instance – and it took them two years to actually get the model right and in the end it’s actually making a really big difference. “The jury is still out.” Meanwhile, the State Government still has $50 million allocated to the programs over the next three years.

There were a total of 474 “critical incidents” recorded across Queensland’s four bail houses in the 2018-19 financial year. Of those incidents, 90 per cent were bail or house curfew breaches. Children at Townsville’s two bail houses committed 317 curfew breaches, significantly more than children in the southeast.

But Ms Farmer remained optimistic about the program.

“We know most of those kids (in SCAS) are completely disengaged with education, they have been exposed to homelessness, poverty, domestic violence, substance abuse … we can actually use those SCAS to get them on to a different path in life,” she said.

“Certainly the final report will be made available once I have had a look at it and we’ve decided what we want to do with the information.”