It’s extremely disappointing that almost a year after the Office of the Custodial Inspector’s damning Children in Tasmanian Prisons report, the Minister for Children and Young People has not progressed much-needed reforms to protect children in adult prisons.
Under Greens’ questioning in budget estimates, the Minister admitted that she did not know how many children had been held in adult watch-houses since the Custodial Inspector’s report in 2025, and that she does not receive any data or information from the Department of Justice on children in adult prisons.
The Minister maintained that children in adult prisons don’t come under her portfolio responsibilities. That’s exactly the problem identified by the Custodial Inspector – when children are held in adult prisons, they fall into a regulatory gap where it’s only too easy for different departments to wash their hands of responsibility.
The report from the Custodial Inspector was harrowing. It shared stories of children who were placed in cells and in facilities alongside adult prisoners who scream at and threatened children with sexual abuse while they waited to be transferred to a youth justice facility. Some children were held in these facilities for as long as two days.
While it’s encouraging that the Department is due to begin a work program to address some of the issues raised by the Custodial Inspector’s report, including an information dashboard accessible to all relevant agencies, it is deeply concerning that children are still falling through this gap.
Adult prisons are no place for children, and the Minister for Children and Young People must act urgently to progress all the recommendations from the Custodial Inspector’s report – not pushing the responsibility onto another department.
