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OPINION | Overcrowded, Understaffed and Out of Ideas
June 30, 2025
The Townsville Bulletin’s article on June 30, “Youth jails face strain over funds”, could not be more accurate. Our youth detention system is buckling under the pressure. The government’s “adult crime, adult time” laws were always going to put more young offenders behind bars, that was the point but there has been no plan implemented to account for that.
Youth detention centres like Cleveland are overcrowded and understaffed. Workers are burning out and it’s been reported that young offenders are being let off with shorter sentences because there’s simply nowhere to put them. And yet, while staff are stretched to the limit and facilities burst at the seams, the simplest solution to this still hasn’t gotten off the ground. Circuit Breaker Sentencing, a policy that closely aligns and resembles Katter’s Australian Party’s Relocation Sentencing policy, has had $80 million dedicated to it, but that’s where it ends. No details, no timeline, and clearly no plan.
This was made clear during Question Time on 24 June 2025, when I asked the Youth Justice Minister a Question Without Notice about Circuit Breaker Sentencing, specifically, when the program would be delivered. The Minister was unable to confirm that this $80 million program was anything more than a headline.[1]
Is establishing a youth detention facility in a remote location too far outside the box for the major parties? Labor completely disregarded the idea, while the LNP have done their best to entertain it, but except for a line item in the Budget, it seems that the Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support are no closer to busing any youth offenders off to the bush.
For perspective, detaining a child in traditional youth detention centres in Queensland can cost between $1,834 and $2,162 per day, or $670,000 to $790,000 per year. At a time when we need more detention beds, it begs the question: Why is the government dragging its feet on a cheaper and potentially more effective solution? Relocation Sentencing would see youth offenders removed from their usual peer groups and sent to a remote location where they would learn respect, discipline and practical life skills in a bid to break the crime cycle.
The LNP government is currently picking up and continuing from where Labor left off, shelling out over $600 million to complete the new 80 bed youth detention centre at Woodford. This centre has been described as having ‘contemporary design elements which aim to support rehabilitation for young people and improve community safety’. This is a grotesque amount of money to house some of Queensland’s most deplorable youth offenders. There is no point building detention centres that children are lining up to get into. This government must make a decision and act quickly if they are to keep their promise of taking youth offenders off our streets while finding a method of incarceration that acts as a deterrent to current and would-be offenders. This is how we keep Queenslanders safe.
Deputy Leader of the Katter’s Australian Party and State Member for Hinchinbrook, Nick Dametto.