Department boss says staff initially declined request to provide information due to ‘incorrect advice’
Fantin requested information from the Queensland Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs related to the child’s incarceration at the Cleveland youth detention centre in Townsville.“An order was necessary because the [department] declined to release the information I had requested to assist me on sentence without a court order,” Fantin said in her published judgment.
“When one sees the information, its declining to do so is unsurprising, because that information contains the regime of detention which you have been subjected to.” The information detailed how during a period of 87 days, he was confined to his cell for more than 20 hours on 78 of those days.Guardian Australia asked the department why it had initially refused to provide the court with information, and whether it was seeking to conceal the extent of solitary confinement experienced by the boy.
Its director general, Deidre Mulkerin, said regional staff were provided with “incorrect advice about the required process to produce the documents requested by the children’s court”. “While I’m pleased the judge did receive the information she needed, I acknowledge this should never have happened that way,” Mulkerin said.“I want to reassure our judiciary and all Queenslanders that we are committed to working with our colleagues in the justice system.”
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