Disability Inclusion in Youth Justice Starts With Ending Isolation
This Wednesday, 3 December 2025 marks the annual International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD), which advocates for increased awareness and acceptance of people with disabilities, and the removal of barriers to inclusivity. On this day, the world recognises the particular challenges and structural issues facing people with disabilities, including but not limited to poorer education opportunities and outcomes, increased poverty, higher vulnerability to abuse and exploitation, and limited agency over their own lives.
For young people with disabilities, these challenges are further exacerbated. This compounded vulnerability of children with disabilities is especially blatant in the circumstances of youth justice; children with disabilities, particularly cognitive and intellectual disabilities, are highly over-represented in the youth justice system.
The theme for this year’s IDPwD is ‘fostering disability inclusive societies for advancing social progress.’ World leaders at the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) held this year recognised that to achieve social progress objectives, people with disabilities must be included “as both agents and beneficiaries of social development”. This theme recognises the value of disability inclusive societies not only for facilitating meaningful participation and strengthened autonomy of people with disabilities but also for driving social progress through mutual social advancement.
The creation of disability inclusive societies requires concrete actions and commitments by governments to remove structural barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating fully in society. This is even more crucial for children with disabilities, and especially those in youth detention, who often face severe difficulties in reintegrating back into their communities after detention.
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability 2023 report found that children with disability are significantly more vulnerable to the disciplinary and punitive characteristics of youth detention centres.
Some of the worst cases surrounding solitary confinement in Australian youth detention centres have been concerning children with disabilities, including an Aboriginal teenager with an intellectual disability being confined for over 500 days at the Cleveland detention centre.
Whether a child’s disability manifests as poorer communication or other behavioural issues, children with disabilities are subjected to punitive measures, including solitary confinement and isolation practices, much more frequently. There have been several instances in which children with disabilities, particularly those with FASD, being placed in police watch houses that were meant to be used for violent adult offenders.
Further, inadequate staff training around disability awareness means that staff do not respond with appropriate care and empathy to children with disability who appear to be non-compliant, and end up over-utilising restrictive measures. The Disability Royal Commission report notably discussed the Banksia Hill detention centre, discovering that the staff only received three hours of training on disability awareness and appropriate care.
In response to isolation practices being over-used, the report made several recommendations, including that youth justice legislation be amended to not only prohibit the practice of solitary confinement, but also to define safeguards around any isolation of children with disabilities.
The subsequent 2025 Progress Report by the Disability Royal Commission showed a general acceptance by state and territory governments of the Commission’s recommendation to prohibit the use of solitary confinement, but with varying levels of actual commitment.
Enforcement issues also arise due to isolation measures being used which may not be labelled solitary confinement but are equally as damaging to children in detention. The Youth Advocacy Centre in Queensland has been particularly vocal about the continued use of isolation against children in detention, notably in Queensland watch houses, which have seen a 50% increase of children under 14 years of age. This is despite the Queensland government’s position that their detention centres don’t use solitary confinement practices.
Solitary confinement is completely contradictory to the support and trauma-informed care that is required for children with disabilities. The deep psychological and physical harm that children with disabilities experience through these practices makes them antithetical to the fostering of disability inclusive societies.
The persistent use of isolation and solitary measures remains a significant barrier for these children; with these measures often being used in place of proper therapeutic care, these children’s vulnerabilities are further exacerbated.
The Disability Royal Commission’s Progress Report shows that there is plenty of work to be done to ensure that children with disabilities are given the proper care and not subjected to harmful practices such as solitary confinement. State and territory governments must commit to implementing the recommendations and eradicating the use of solitary confinement and other isolation measures.
This International Day of People with Disabilities highlights the importance of fostering societies in which people, and children, with disabilities can thrive.
It is crucial that the youth justice system in Australia also reflects this, and commits to providing proper care and support to children with disabilities in detention.