Innocent Queensland children pleading guilty to avoid harsh bail laws, lawyers say

Many children on remand who may be exonerated or not sentenced are pleading guilty to escape long periods of detention

• Violent and vulnerable: Ricky, 14, has been to jail 15 times. In Queensland’s youth justice system, he lost hope
• ‘Like Guantánamo’: the children locked in solitary for weeks at a time
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Young people in Queensland are pleading guilty to offences they did not commit – or where there is little evidence to support charges – to avoid spending extreme periods on remand in the state’s buckling youth justice system, lawyers say.

Queensland has the nation’s largest youth prison population, and recent data obtained by Guardian Australia reveals 88% of children in detention centres and police watch houses were being held unsentenced.

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