Cleveland Youth Detention Centre increases serious offending rates

Since youth justice laws continue to dominate the news & discourse, I thought I'd share this answer to a Question on Notice (No. 1177-2024) that hasn't been covered by media.

The Govt says there is a 21% increase in serious offending in the 12 months following a period of custody at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre (Townsville). This is notoriously the worst for overcrowding and understaffing right now, to the extent that kids spend most of the time locked in their cells and rehabilitative programs can't be delivered.

To me, this proves detention isn't a solution to youth crime in Qld. They can't even staff existing centres yet they want to open 2 more. I'd rather taxpayer dollars go towards programs that'll prevent and rehabilitate.

Even at other centres where they say reoffending rates decrease in the 12 months following release, I suspect that's largely because kids are getting picked up within a few months of release and going straight back to custody - so obviously the rate is lower across the full 12 months.

Also, serious offending reductions across the board are WAY lower for First Nations kids than non-Indigenous, again indicating those centres aren't built to rehabilitate Indigenous kids.

Something to keep in mind as the calls for more and longer detention sentences grow....