Sisters Inside ambassadors Debbie Kilroy, Ruby Wharton and Neta-Rie Mabo say the factors driving youth crime in Queensland are preventable and urged the Palaszczuk government to listen to their End Toxic Prisons Campaign.
On Wednesday representatives from a number of organisations met in Brisbane at the Get Smarter Not Tougher forum to state their claim on how the new youth crime laws are too severe and how youth crime can be stopped before it reaches police and the courts.
The meeting was followed by the issuing of a letter, signed by the 40 advocacy groups and 20 individuals, asking the government to "stop politicising youth crime".
Sisters Inside is an independent community organisation based in Queensland but operating nationwide which advocates for the collective human rights of women and girls in prison, and their families, and provides services to address their individual needs.
"What we're seeing is the mass incarceration and criminalisation of children, particularly Aboriginal girls," Ms Kilroy said.
"As an NGO organisation that's been been operating for 30 years, we have the answers on how to end crime.
"We see the issues of the system and how the Palaszczuk government refuses to meet and to debate and have a conversation about what actually works."
Sisters Inside called for an end to youth incarceration and ask that the state government invest in community-controlled solutions to end the criminalisation of marginalised people.
"We support girls as soon as they're in the watch houses, support them while they're in detention and when they're released.
"With that whole-through care were able to build relationships. And with those relationships were able to identify their actual needs and meet those needs."
Former Queensland's Corrective Services Commission director-general, Keith Hamburger, noted he has seen these issues accumulating over time, and that there needs to be structural change from the "very top".
"At the moment we have a range of departments operating in silos," he said
"The issues we have seen with children falling between the cracks and being neglected is because we are not implenting a place based response to this issue."
Mr Hamburger called for the government to urgently implement a justice reform office, which he noted was recommended by the Queensland Productivity Commission in 2019.
Mr Hamburger said youth detention centres are inhumane places which don't rehabilitate detainees 90% of the time, those people move up to the adult prison system.
He proposed a model in which at-risk children are taken to an assessment centre to get professionally assessed and from there a pathway plan is curated and taken before a magistrate to implement for that child.
"We have a model of where it would actually over the next few years phase out the current, not-fit-for-purpose, inappropriate youth detention centres," he said.
"It is just because of this stupid law-and-order debate that goes on, politicians arguing over how tough we can be instead of looking at all the evidence-based solutions.
"We have given them submissions, detailed submissions and asked, 'Please can we have a chat and explain this?' No response," he said.
The Queensland government recently announced a series of "tough on crime" measures that would see severe sentences imposed on young offenders.
