Community views in Queensland of young people are discouraging them from contributing positively to their communities, a new report has found.

The report, released on Friday by the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC), also found young Queenslanders who had been in contact with the justice system described their transition plans and rehabilitation programs as being ineffective in addressing the root causes of offending.

It was informed by 66 young people who have been in detention in Queensland, as well as families of young offenders and 44 frontline workers from across the state.

The report highlighted racism by community members towards young people of colour; many of whom had never offended, but who faced "strong community assumptions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are involved in local crime".

"There's a lot of judgement...a lot of judgement with our First Nations young people," one frontline worker respondent said.

"A lot of kids are painted as criminals, when they are not and that's what the language is, 'little criminals, little…'. We need to start seeing them as a young person who's on struggle street and needs some support."

One family member said: "It's not only Black kids out there doing things. Why is everything focused on the Indigenous kids, why aren't they doing it to the white kids as well because they're doing it as well?"

QFCC principal commissioner Luke Twyford said despite conversations around youth crime being commonplace, the experiences of the people involved was rarely magnified or heard — especially when it came to what they require from the community and the youth justice system to help them change behaviour.

"For every person who offends - of any age - the purpose of our justice system must be to change behaviour and hold that person accountable for their actions," Mr Twyford said, noting for the "small group who go on to reoffend, it's clear the system isn't meeting its intended purpose".

In contrast to the rest of the country, the rate of young people in detention in Queensland is growing. On an average day in 2022–23, there were 828 young people in detention nationwide — 310 of those young children were in Queensland.

The incarceration of young people, which disproportionately impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children, has seen tragic results.

In March, the Child Death Review Board's annual report highlighted the story of two disabled Indigenous children, who died in the aftermath of being kept in "separation" - the term the Queensland government uses for solitary confinement - for extensive periods of time whilst incarcerated in youth facilities.

The QFCC report found the existing approaches to rehabilitation and reintegration for young people leaving detention were ineffective, and the assumptions about the rehabilitative prospects of detention "unjustified".

Many of the respondents spoke of a variety of factors that led to their offending, including poverty, housing instability, family breakdown and the exposure to domestic and family violence, as well as drug and alcohol use and dependence.

Furthermore, the report noted the support young people received - both in detention and on release - was "ineffective at addressing these factors".

"The main concern raised was the inadequate support and services invested in addressing the root causes of young people's offending, meaning we are essentially releasing young people from detention back to the circumstances and environments that drove them to their offending in the first place," Mr Twyford said.

QFCC commissioner and Gamilaraay woman Natalie Lewis told National Indigenous Times earlier this year: "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples face immense inequalities, including poverty, inadequate housing, racism, and limited access to critical services, which are known drivers of youth offending."

"Our system punishes vulnerability rather than addresses it, and compounds trauma rather than heals. This is largely because the support and intervention that would actually make a difference exist beyond the criminal justice system."

In a case last month, the treatment of a child who was kept in separation for long periods of time at a youth detention centre due to staff shortages, was described as "a disgrace and an embarrassment to every right-minded member of our community".

The recidivist rate within 12 months of being released from youth detention in Queensland was between 84 and 96 per cent in 2023.

On the treatment of the child, the Supreme Court noted: "It serves the applicant and the community no benefit if a youth offender is ordered to serve detention, but then has minimal access to rehabilitation to assist the offender to change his or her behaviour before being released into the community and entering into adulthood."

The report recommended strengthening post-detention transition programs for a dedicated 12-month period.

The programs should also form part of a "broader developmental approach" to crime prevention, one that invests in supports and services to address the root causes of offending.

"I was immensely saddened to hear that young people who have experienced detention feel rejected by people in their communities, which—in their words—is a disincentive to contribute positively and change their behaviour for the better," Mr Twyford said.

"This clearly tells us that continuing to demonise and reject young people who have offended—often because of circumstances outside of their control—will do nothing to reduce offending in our communities and will likely have the reverse effect."