More than 6000 Queenslanders would be thrown behind bars for committing serious crimes while on bail under drastic law changes being considered by the state government, it can be revealed.<\/p>\n
Under the proposed changes, offenders who breach bail in relation to one of the 45 \u201cadult crime, adult time\u201d offences would face mandatory jail time,<\/a> as the Crisafulli government moves to expand its signature youth crime policy <\/a>to both youth and adult offenders.<\/p>\n Exclusive data provided by the government to The Sunday Mail shows the laws would have captured 5248 adults and 859 children over the past 12 months who committed ACAT offences while on bail.<\/p>\n The figures show 61 per cent of youth offenders committed another offence while on bail, with 38 per cent committing an ACAT offence. <\/p>\n Among adult offenders, about five per cent of the 99,766 people on bail committed an ACAT offence.<\/p>\n Queensland\u2019s ACAT laws, first introduced in 2024, now cover 45 offences, including murder, rape, robbery, assault occasioning bodily harm, stalking, car theft, drug trafficking and serious driving offences.<\/p>\n Government data also points to a fall in serious repeat youth offenders, down 29 per cent over two years from 477 in 2023\u201324 to 341 in 2025\u201326. <\/p>\n Of those serious repeat offenders, 65 per cent committed ACAT offences while subject to bail conditions.<\/p>\n Premier David Crisafulli \u2013 who has tied his leadership to reducing victim numbers by the 2028 election – announced in July that the government would introduce laws by the end of the year to punish repeat offenders.<\/p>\n While cabinet is yet to approve the legislation, parliament is due to sit this week.<\/p>\n \u201cEnough is enough. Queenslanders are calling for it, and we are going to deliver it,\u201d Mr Crisafulli said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to get serious about bail reform in this state<\/p>\n \u201cQueenslanders are saying it and the statistics prove it, Adult Crime, Adult Time is working but Labor\u2019s bail laws are broken and they must be reformed.\u201d<\/p>\n The push for tougher \u201cbreach bail, go to jail\u201d laws follows the death of 25-year-old Cairns woman Savannah Spence Paige earlier this month who died after a stolen car crashed into her vehicle and two others. <\/p>\n Jake Edward Warn, 36, has been charged with multiple offences including manslaughter.<\/p>\n But the proposed crackdown has drawn criticism from corrections staff, legal experts and criminologists, who all warn the prison system is already under severe strain.<\/p>\n The Together union, which represents corrections officers, last week said the state\u2019s prisons were operating at about twice their designed capacity and could not absorb another influx of inmates.<\/p>\n Assistant state secretary Michael Thomas said the policy might make for a strong political message, but the prison capacity simply did not exist.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sort of surge that comes from just the raw numbers means we would go to having to triple up prisoners in cells designed for one person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy echoed this, saying that Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council data indicated the state would need to accomodate another 13,000 prisoners if the laws were applied broadly.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are already double-bunking people, and that\u2019s problematic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie dismissed those concerns, saying the government\u2019s priority was the safety of victims and the broader community, not the comfort of offenders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way for offenders not to worry about going to jail and worry about their food or their accommodation in jail is don\u2019t commit the crime in the first place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t breach your bail, and you won\u2019t go to jail. That\u2019s the best advice I can give to <\/p>\n offenders.\u201d<\/p>\n His comments came after an Auditor-General\u2019s report last month found Queensland\u2019s tough-on-crime agenda was colliding with an underfunded and poorly resourced prison system that was failing to rehabilitate offenders. <\/p>\n That report found that twelve of the state\u2019s 13 high-security prisons are now holding more inmates than intended, as 44 per cent of prisoners had returned to jail within two years of release.<\/p>\n The government has not confirmed whether frontline staff and experts would be consulted before the policy is introduced.<\/p>\n Former Queensland Law Society president Rebecca Fogerty said the proposal would strip magistrates and judges of discretion and described it as \u201cmandatory sentencing by stealth\u201d.<\/p>\n Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said the government would put the rights of victims ahead of offenders.<\/p>\n \u201cBail is a privilege, not a right and if repeat offenders are breaching it, they should and will go to jail under this next phase of Adult Crime, Adult Time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 6000 Queenslanders would be thrown behind bars for committing serious crimes while on bail under 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