Number of children under 14 in adult watch houses in Queensland rises 50% in 12 months
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Report to parliament states watch houses are an ‘inadequate place to keep young people overnight’ and are ‘harmful and traumatising’. The number of children aged 13 or under in Queensland’s adult watch houses has increased by 50% in 12 months, according to new statistics.
![['It's too cold in here': disabled First Nations girl's anguish revealed in watch house CCTV – video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/039ef012375bb352006e6181960c131b7f5895a1/0_94_1800_1013/1800.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The statistics – which were included in a paper tabled by the Office of the Public Guardian in Queensland parliament on Tuesday – showed 120 children aged between 10 and 13 spent at least one night in a police watch house in 2023–24. “Concerningly, this represented a 50% increase on 2022–23,” the report read.
![['I can't breathe': teenage boy gasps for air after fire lit in Queensland watch house – video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ed6e9510468f8b6ff6d3d28967ca09d26b991d78/129_0_3838_2160/3838.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. The number of children aged 17 or under detained for more than four nights consecutively increased to 675 from 640 in the previous year, it said. The Queensland Family and Child Commission has previously said watch houses are an “inadequate place to keep young people overnight” and are “harmful and traumatising”.
Watch houses are temporary holding cells, usually inside police stations, designed to hold violent and dangerous adults and intended to be used for short periods. Many have become overcrowded – particularly after high-arrest police operations targeting children. The ongoing detention of young people in them has been compared to “abuse”.
