Youths held in adult jail

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE -- Queensland Aboriginal and Islanders Legal Service vice-president Sam Watson said on March 22 that the service would appeal to the High Court or even the United Nations to “stop children being put at risk”.

This follows the illegal transfer of 30 boys from Westbrook juvenile detention centre to Wacol prison after disturbances at Westbrook the previous weekend.

Watson said the boys, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, were being housed in the same jail as some of the state's most hardened criminals. “We maintain they are at risk”, he said.

“It was against the law until 6.45 this morning, and it's a violation of a United Nations convention.”

The state government early on March 22 rushed through changes to the Juvenile Justice Act ,under which it had been illegal to detain children in adult jails.

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