17-year-olds will no longer be viewed as adults, and will not be sent to adult prisons if convicted by the courts, under a proposed law reform announced by the State Government on Wednesday.
The Government has also pledged to move all 17-year-olds out of adult prisons within 12 months of new laws being passed.
It plans to introduce legislation to Parliament next week to implement the change.
At the moment about 150 juvenile offenders are housed in Queensland’s two youth detention centres, while about 200 17-year-olds are held in the State’s prison system.
The Government said it hopes to introduce the relevant legislation next week and have it debated and passed by the end of the year.
Once the new law is passed, all 17-year-olds will be moved out of adult prisons within 12 months and placed under the supervision of the youth justice system.
The move would mean 17-year-olds would no longer be viewed as adults by the courts.
However, 17-year-olds currently before the courts will continue to be placed in adult prisons, if sentenced to jail time, until the laws officially change.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was proud of the planned reforms.
“We cannot have a situation where Queensland is the only state in this nation that is treating 17-year-olds differently,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said the changes would require the Government to determine whether new facilities will be built, existing ones expanded or sections cordoned off in adult prisons.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the Government could have made the changes through regulation, but wanted to enshrine it in law to make it harder for future governments to reverse the reforms.
The Queensland Law Society (QLS), which had called for the reform last month after video emerged of a 17-year-old being restrained and placed in a spit mask at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, welcomed the announcement.
“The Queensland Law Society called for this reform prior to the last election, and has advocated consistently for this, so I note with some satisfaction that the government has accepted the Society’s view on this,” QLS president Bill Potts said.
“It is one of the many reforms called for by the Society and adopted by the Palaszczuk government, and possibly the most important.
“By keeping children out of adult prisons we increase their chances of rehabilitation immeasurably, which is good for them and good for Queensland.”
Mr Potts said the issue was bigger than politics and called for bipartisan support of the measure, noting that as the changes would take some time to implement there was no time to waste on rhetorical debate.
“With young lives at stake, this isn’t the time for political point-scoring or ideological chest-beating, it is a time for action,” he said.
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