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A 13-year-old girl with a severe intellectual disability has been placed in an isolation cell at a Queensland Police monitoring centre.
The girl was taken into quarantine after she threw toilet paper at a surveillance camera.
The box has no windows and is very cold.
police“Get down on the ground.”
Sam“I was just sitting there, you idiot.
Sam has the mental capacity of a kindergarten child, the language skills of a three-year-old – and has been deemed unfit to stand trial in court.
The video, obtained after a year-long investigation by Guardian Australia and SBS The Feed, shows the girl becoming increasingly distressed after being brought into the isolation cell – known as the box – and trying to get out several times.
On the fourth attempt the door was closed on her arm.
(screaming) “It really hurts.”
Sam is one of thousands of children who go through the Queensland youth justice system each year.
Figures show that Queensland detains more children than anywhere else in Australia.
Some say this is because the country is suffering from a youth crime crisis.
Marcelo and his family were asleep when a group of teenagers, some armed with knives, stole two cars from his Gold Coast home.
“We were asleep, weren’t we? It was very early and my wife heard a very loud explosion… What we saw on the CCTV was really terrifying for us. We saw a large group of criminals armed with knives around the house.”
But the data shows that youth crime rates are actually trending down — and that only a small group are committing and reoffending.
Child advocates say some of the children placed in observation homes are among the most vulnerable — many of them with disabilities, like Sam.
It is against the law in Queensland to identify children who have been through the youth justice system, but what we can tell you is that Sam is severely affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder or FASD – an intellectual disability.
Her grandmother, whom we call Alice, has been taking care of her since she was nine years old.
“She doesn’t understand social norms. So if she likes someone’s necklace, she might take that necklace even if it’s her friend, but that’s part of her disability… If you see her, she’ll get all excited about little childish things. But there’s also the other side of her, which is a teenager who swears. So people see that side.”
Heidi Zeman is a neuropsychiatrist and Associate Professor at the Menzies Health Institute at Griffith University.
She says fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a broad problem, affecting parts of the brain that control decision-making and appropriate response to the environment.
“Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder affects young people’s behavior through irritability, aggression, and difficulty monitoring and regulating themselves. They are unable to participate adequately in society, and are unable to perform the activities of daily living that you and I might do.”
A study by the Telethon Kids Institute provides further evidence of the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
The institute found that in Western Australia, four in 10 children in custody have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and 89 per cent have some form of neurological condition.
Most children who are incarcerated reoffend.
Heidi says fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, and the supervised home environment makes things worse.
“If you put this child in an isolated detention environment, what you’re going to see is an exacerbation of this dysfunction. So you’re going to see behaviors like hitting walls, acting out, acting aggressively, acting very violently, and this young person becomes really unable to regulate his behavior.”
Attorney Catherine Hayes also says the very conditions of detention are harming their chances of rehabilitation.
“We are aware of a number of horrific incidents that have occurred in detention centres across the state. Young men are beaten by their cellmates or guards. Men expose themselves to young girls or young children… When the children come out of the detention centre or the detention centre at that moment, they are angry; they are traumatised.”
Tim Spaul is a Gigga man and psychologist who has worked with First Nations youth in Brisbane for over 20 years.
He says the entire system needs to change, to address the fundamental issues children face.
“My argument is that these consequences should lead to better outcomes for both parties. If we don’t, we are sending these kids back into the same system… where they come back and commit the same or similar crimes again.”
But human rights advocates fear that change is unlikely to happen.
In 2019, as Minister for Child Safety, Dee Farmer advocated for removing children from foster care.
“If we continue to lock them up and waste our approach to youth, that’s exactly what will happen. There’s almost a 100 percent chance that youth will reoffend.”
But now, as Queensland’s Minister for Youth Justice, she has a different view.
“I make no apologies for keeping the community safe. So if a young person is a danger to themselves or to the community, they will be detained and they will be held or put in a probation center because the court has ordered them to be there.”
She says the system has sufficient checks and balances to prevent and address abuse and mistreatment.
“Of course nobody wants to see a young person in distress. Nobody wants to see a young person being abused. That’s why we have a very strong accountability system in our probation centres. We have at least seven oversight bodies that go to these probation centres on a regular basis.”
Queensland Police declined multiple requests for an interview, but in a statement said when a young person is detained, their physical and mental health is assessed.
Police did not comment on specific cases, but said they were aware of allegations and would investigate.
Meanwhile, for children like Sam, the cycle continues.
With local elections months away and both sides of Queensland’s political spectrum pledging to take tougher action against youth crime, they will continue to be placed in adult supervision homes and isolation.
Alice says her granddaughter Sam is on the dangerous repeat offenders list, meaning she is being targeted by the specialist youth crime squad, Taskforce Guardian.
“Living in this world is very scary for her. She doesn’t always understand why she’s being arrested… We’ve had different reactions from the police. Some are very nice and understanding, but they have a job to do. Some police officers have told me they don’t care, that they’ve been ordered to arrest her for everything… even though the guardhouse isn’t the right place for her.”
There’s more to this story.
To watch the rest of the investigation – head to the SBS News website.
(**Sam is not her real name.)
You may find the following helplines helpful:
13 yarn (13 92 76)
Indigenous Counselling Services 0410 539 905
1800 Respect (1800 737 732)
Life line 13 11 14
Child Helpline 1800 55 1800
