Position statement
Queensland’s Forensic Disability Service (FDS) is meant to provide skills training and other programs to people under forensic orders so that they can live back in the community. However, some residents are held indefinitely and are kept in cruel conditions.
Queensland’s treatment of people with disability under forensic orders is inhumane and does not comply with the law or international human rights standards.
FDS residents can live in dirty physical conditions, be subjected to Restrictive Practices, have little or no contact with family and friends and can be held far from cultural supports. Queensland’s laws permitting the indefinite detention of people with disability are also contrary to recommendations of the United Nations and, more recently, the Disability Royal Commission.
QAI has called on the Queensland Government to end the indefinite detention of people with disability. The Queensland Government must acknowledge and address the human rights violations occurring across the forensic disability service system and at the FDS.
QAI’s position statement contains proposals for reform that would ensure the treatment of people with disability under forensic orders is compliant with the law and with human rights standards.
Read our position statement here:
ABC’s Four Corners
On 16 October 2023, ABC’s Four Corners program shared the story of Adrian* who had been in seclusion at the Forensic Disability Service (FDS) in Wacol, Brisbane for over ten-years. Adrian’s unlawful seclusion was condemned by the Queensland Ombudsman in 2019 yet there was no change to his circumstances and he remained in permanent seclusion.
You can watch the Four Corners episode here.
Telling this story on Four Corners was part of the decades long battle QAI has fought for the freedom of people with disability in the FDS. The indefinite detention of people with disability is an abhorrent practice that violates human rights.
Since the episode went to air, things have changed for all the long term detainees in the FDS.
In August 2024, the Queensland Ombudsman published a report saying “Of the people currently residing at the FDS, none has been there for longer than three years”. This publicly confirms that all the long term detainees of the FDS are now living in the community.
But more needs to be done to make sure what we saw on Four Corners never happens again. We need the laws to change, as repeatedly recommended by past reports and the Disability Royal Commission. This call for legal change is made again in the Ombudsman’s August 2024 report.
Our CEO Matilda Alexander spoke to the ABC again at the start of September following the Ombudsman’s new report. She told them “it is time to permanently end the indefinite detention of people with disability”.
You can read this ABC article here.
We must remain vigilant when people are detained in institutions like the FDS, and QAI continues to advocate to stop the indefinite of detention of people with disability.
*Name has been changed
2024 Queensland Ombudsman Report
In August 2024, the Queensland Ombudsman released a follow up to their 2019 report, reviewing progress made on the implementation of recommendations made in the 2019 report. The 2024 review examined:
- The current level of compliance with the Forensic Disability Act 2011
- The implementation status of the recommendations made in the 2019 report; and
- Whether the FDS is compliant with the Human Rights Act 2019.
Whilst it found that the FDS had improved some systems and processes, the most serious concern identified in the 2019 report regarding the use of prolonged seclusion had continued. Among other things it found:
“Seclusion orders did not always include adequate reasoning to show how, in the circumstances, the decision was compatible with human rights or that the decision-maker had given proper consideration to human rights, as required by the Human Rights Act 2019.”
You can read the full report here: 2024 Ombudsman report.