The Queensland Government has released a revised version of its youth detention report with fewer redactions, following a public outcry.
Hundreds of pages of the independent report were fully or partially censored, which Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said was done on the advice of crown lawyers to avoid identifying minors.
The Queensland Government ordered the review last year following an , which exposed images showing alleged mistreatment of juvenile inmates at Townsville's Cleveland Youth Detention Centre.
In one incident in 2015, a guard let a dog without a muzzle approach an Indigenous girl in an “aggressive manner” while she was attempting to get out of a pool.
Following criticism of the censoring, Ms D'Ath told state parliament last month she would have the report reviewed, and on Wednesday released an updated version of the report with the equivalent of 159 pages now no longer censored.
"I said at the time that crown laws approach was conservative, and that it was done from a purely legal perspective," Ms D'Ath told reporters on Wednesday.
"There is now more information around the actual incidents, and allegation in relation to individual youths."
In particular more information is now accessible on the 17-year-old male referred to as Young Person A1, whose experience, in which he was tied to a chair and made to wear a face mask, led to the review in the first place.
The review found he had been treated unfairly.
"As a result of the media coverage the Office of the Chief Inspector investigated the incident and considered that the revocation of the privilege restrictions in Young Person A1's case, 'were not fair, just and reasonable' and that placing Young Person A1 in a head, face protector and body belt during the 13 February 2013 incident 'does not appear to be fair, just and reasonable'," the report reads.
The report followed at the state's youth detention facilities were revealed last year by Amnesty International.
The new report's authors, Kathryn McMillan QC and Professor Megan Davis, noted the timeframe of the report was "very short" and didn't allow time to conduct hearings, which would've called 80-100 witnesses.
At the time of the report's initial release Debbie Kilroy, founder of prisoner advocacy group Sisters Inside and a member of the QLD sentencing advisory council, said the redactions amounted to a cover up.
"Young people have been silenced again, and that is a major concern," Ms Kilroy told NITV News.
"It says quite clearly in the report that they de-identified the young people, and they were anonymous, so why do we have nearly half of the report removed?
"We can only come to the conclusion that this is a cover up."
Ms D'Ath said the release of the revised report doesn't change the government's response, which was formulated on the basis of the full, unredacted report.
Since April, the government has committed $6.2 million to the implementing the report's recommendations, including hiring 53 new staff who have been deployed at both the Cleveland and Brisbane Youth Detention Centres.
With AAP
