Children are spending days – and sometimes a week or more – in police custody designed only for short stays. New research points to isolation, poor conditions and serious gaps in oversight.

Many Australians assume that when a child is refused bail, they’re taken straight to a youth detention centre. In reality, many spend days – and sometimes weeks – in police custody before being transferred to youth detention.

Last week, an ABC investigation revealed children were held in police custody in Tasmania more than 300 times last financial year, including one child who was held for 55 hours.

Our current research suggests this issue extends far beyond Tasmania. Yet police custody remains one of the least visible and least scrutinised detention settings in Australia’s criminal legal system.

Here’s what we’ve found so far.

Police custody wasn’t designed for children

Police custody – also called the watch house, lock-up or police cells – is the first point of detention after arrest, intended for short stays while police investigate an alleged offence.

These environments were never designed for children. They generally don’t have the staff or services needed to keep children safe and respond to their developmental, health and wellbeing needs.

Concerns about conditions in police custody are not new.

In 1983, 16-year-old Aboriginal boy John Pat died in a Roebourne police cell. Four police officers were charged with manslaughter but were later acquitted. Pat’s death was the catalyst for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in........

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