Queensland children are spending more time in custody waiting for their cases to be heard in court than they would be serving sentences due to the state government’s youth crime crackdown.

There were also 233 children in custody in the state on any given day this year, up from 208 in 2020, according to the annual report of Queensland Children’s Court.

Court President Deborah Richards says children are in custody waiting for their cases to be heard for an average of 309 days, or more than 10 months, which is usually longer than most sentences.

“By the time the majority of children who are on remand are sentenced they have already served their sentence or in some cases spent more time in custody than would otherwise have been ordered by the courts,” she wrote.

The report said the rising numbers of children being held, and the lengthy times they’re spending in custody, was not caused by the pandemic, with the courts operating at close to normal capacity this year.

Judge Richards said the problems were due to the state’s government’s youth crime crackdown, which began in April.

Allowing courts to fit teen offenders with GPS trackers and removing the presumption of bail for those caught committing serious offences while on bail had strained court capacity.

“It is unsurprising, in those circumstances, that the number of children held in custody (both on remand and serving a sentence) increased in 2021 to an average daily number of 233 children in custody on any given day,” Judge Richards wrote in the report, tabled in parliament on Monday.

The report said children who’ve been previously named in child protections proceedings were also more likely to appear before the children’s court, charged with criminal offences.

The court president said it’s “a matter of concern” 264 children were subject to dual child protection orders and youth justice orders as of June 30.

“These children usually have complex needs that are difficult to manage but are very much in need of protection,” Judge Richards wrote.

“They are often in residential care facilities or bouncing from kinship carer to families of friends and they regularly abscond from their placements.

“Urgent work needs to be done to assist these children.”

She said Indigenous children make up 46 per cent of all child defendants with the Queensland Family and Child Commission probing why they are over-represented.

The report said Indigenous children make up 87 per cent of 10-year-olds and 85 per cent of 11-year-olds before the court.

Judge Richards noted that a recent Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC) report showed 80 per cent of offenders reported using at least one drug or volatile substance such as sniffing solvents, aerosols or petrol.

Almost one in three were affected by domestic and family violence and more than half suffered a mental health or behavioural disorder, the QFCC report said, while one in two were disengaged from education, training or employment.

“The report highlights the fact that many of the children who appear before the courts come from significantly deprived backgrounds,” Judge Richards wrote.

The report noted that almost half of all children who had finalised a court appearance never returned to the youth justice system, however it was unclear whether they entered the adult justice system.

– AAP