Walking into the Cairns watch house is an experience that awakens the senses. Fluorescent lights, no windows, strong smells of body odour mixed with old food, loud noises as adult voices reverberate off concrete-block walls covered in grime and graffiti.

On Friday I visited the watch house with a Queensland police officer. He wanted me to see first-hand the conditions in which children as young as 10 are being detained. He showed me a small cement quadrangle, the only space where the children can exercise and access fresh air and natural light. On the wall I see “Medical-Treatment” written in chalk among other illegible scratchings. In the middle of the space, in full view of others, is a metal toilet.

Children are held in cells, two at a time. They have nothing with them, nothing to do. No........

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