REVEALED: kids kept in watch house

A HUMAN rights organisation says the system needs to change after statistics show children as young as 10 are being kept in Townsville watch houses for extended periods of time.

The Townsville Bulletin obtained statistics from the Youth Justice Department that show 66 distinct children have been held in watch houses for longer than one night in about eight months.

Between July last year and March this year, 36 children aged between 10 and 14 years old were kept in adult watch houses, with 17 of those spending one night behind bars.

The remaining either spent at least two nights or the weekend in a Townsville watch house.

Amnesty International Australia campaigner Joel Clark said while it was encouraging that longer stays were down, he was still disappointed.

“Even two nights in a watch house is harmful, and the Government needs to find alternatives to putting kids in adult watch houses, such as bail accommodation,” he said.

The Queensland Police Service is responsible for the management of all police watch houses.

A spokesman said holding a young person in a watch house was done only as a last resort.

“The majority of young people are held in watch houses for less than 24 hours while awaiting a court appearance, for normal processing or while waiting for transfer to a youth detention centre,” he said.

The statistics showed the longest period a child was detained in a Townsville watch house was five nights. This was a 15-year-old boy detained in October last year. More recently, a 17-year-old boy was detained for three nights in March.

The average time in the Townsville watch house was 1.5 nights.

Mr Clark said the “terrible” statistics showed urgent reform was needed.

“We know of cases of children being stripsearched and shackled. Watch houses are built to hold adults for short periods of time after they’re arrested and while they wait for their court hearings,” he said. “They are not places children were meant to be kept in for more than a couple of hours.”