The fall out into revelations a First Nations 17-year-old was struck with a baton by police at the Richlands watch house in Brisbane have continued to reverberate, with police behaviour being explicitly criticised.

On Tuesday, ABC's 7.30 revealed footage of Jason (not the child's real name) being held in an adult watch house and calling out to his brother, who is detained in a separate part of the watch house.

He stands at the window gesturing and lies down before calling out through the gap underneath the door.

Police use the intercom to ask him to stop yelling out before CCTV footage reveals two officers walking down the hall, asking him to move back into his cell from the small exercise yard adjoining.

He begins to comply by moving his mattress back, but the officers enter the room - one wielding a baton. Despite swearing at the police, Jason doesn't lash out.

However, within six seconds, he's in a head lock, struck three times with a baton by one officer until his legs fail and he hits the floor. A third officer comes in to retrain him.

"It's an absolutely disproportionate and illegal response," Katherine Hayes, chief executive of the Youth Advocacy Centre, who are supporting Jason and his family, told National Indigenous Times.

"There was no provocation. There was some yelling, but it was only consistent with all the conduct that goes on in a watch house.

"So, there was nothing that warranted that response."

Speaking on 7.30, a commissioner from Queensland's Family and Child Commission (QFCC), Natalie Lewis, said: "That's violence, violence against a child… whether they're 10 years old or 17 years old.

"This is a child in an environment where they are owed a duty of care.

"The child is entitled to exactly the same expectation that we would have for any victim of violence, and that is that they are listened to and that they're heard."

Jason made an official complaint to the Queensland Office of the Public Guardian's community visitor program and was lodged with the police's Ethical Standards Command.

However, an investigation overseen by the state's corruption watchdog found the use of force was lawful and reasonable.

Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman oversees South Brisbane district and has defended the officers, telling 7.30 Jason grabbed an officer around the waist.

"To use three individuals to restrain one person … reinforces the level of aggression that the officers were facing at that particular moment," he said, arguing the child's "behaviour" justified it.

Ms Hayes disagrees.

"When you look at it, he [Jason] was complying with their instructions, and they went in with the baton ready to hit him," she said.

"There was no de-escalation."

Queensland has been heavily criticised for allowing children to be kept in adult watch houses, with the government suspending the state's Human Rights Act last year in order to do so.

A report last month found all three of the state's youth detention centres in 2022-23 were operating over their safe capacity by an average of 23 young offenders each day.

In May, Ms Hayes highlighted incidents in the facilities, including, "sexual abuse by other child inmates, physical harm by guards and other children".

A report in March by the Child Death Review Board highlighted the case of two disabled, Aboriginal boys - known to child services - who spent a combined 600 days in detention, the majority in separation (the government term for isolation or solitary confinement).

Both children died in the immediate aftermath of leaving the facility.

Dr Mindi Sotiri, executive director at the Justice Reform Initiative, said there is an "urgent need to stop using adult police watch-houses to lock up children in Queensland".

"There is an urgent need to condemn the use of police violence against children – including while they are incarcerated," Dr Sotiri said.

"The use of violence cannot and should not be justified as in any way reasonable."

According to guidelines, children are not meant to be kept in a watch house for more than 72 hours.

Jason was restrained by officers on his fifth day inside, in a building that can house adult sex offenders and murderers.

"A psychiatrist who works in the watch houses has said that he sees decline in mental health after 24 hours in children and they come out angrier and more damaged," Ms Hayes said.

"Even today, we've got a young person who has been in the watch house for maybe nine days."

In a state that is overwhelmed with talk of youth crime, the treatment of children - many of whom are on remand - in facilities designed for adults, does nothing to help the community.

"There exists substantial research that shows that the conditions in which people are held has a significant impact on behaviour," Dr Sotiri said.

"When people are held in harsh environments or deprived of basic human needs…[their] behaviours tend to escalate."