State Controlled Childhood:  The Business of Family Policing in Queensland 

FOREWORD
Sisters Inside has supported and advocated for criminalised women and girls for more than 30 years. After experiencing rejection and violence from the very systems that are supposed to protect them, countless women and girls have found refuge at Sisters Inside. This report reveals the importance of that work and reminds us that safety and justice can only be achieved through culturally strong, trauma-informed models of care.

Several investigations, inquiries and studies have been done on the ‘Child Safety’ and ‘Youth Justice’ systems in recent years. They have invariably concluded that these systems are harmful, and hundreds of recommendations have been made about how things could be improved. But what Sisters Inside calls for here is a fundamental shift in the way we approach our work with children and families. This report should be required reading for every person who works in government, law, social work, and health care. It makes for distressing reading, but we owe it to the children and families who are affected by these systems to hear their voices and know of their stories.

The stories in this report are harrowing. It is time for Queenslanders to reckon with the fact that our Child Safety system is unsafe and our Youth Justice system is unjust. This report calls for a ‘radical reimagining’ of these systems so we can achieve safety and healing for children, families and communities. But unlike other reports, it does not leave us with more questions than answers. Sisters Inside provides us with a model for service delivery that has proven effective. It costs more than $1300 a day to keep children in out of home care – why would we continue to invest in a system that is violent when we have a model that works?

I am profoundly humbled by the courage shown by the women who have generously shared their stories in this report, just so we can be educated. This should not be their burden. We shouldn’t need to be told that the best way to bring about safety is through healing. We shouldn’t need to be told that it damages children, families and communities when children are ripped from their homes and punished for expressing their distress. We shouldn’t need to be told that safe housing is a fundamental human need. All of this should be a given. But we have so much more than this to learn from these woman and girls. Perhaps the most important message they send is one of resilience. They show us that wisdom and strength can emerge from suffering. My hope is that their stories will be listened to, and that their words will provide a blueprint for the ‘radical transformation’ we so desperately need.

Professor Tamara Walsh
School of Law
University of Queensland