Man's death in custody highlights Queensland watch house overcrowding

The death of a man in police custody highlights systemic failures of overcrowding in Queensland's watch houses, the state's police union says.

The 30-year-old man died after being transferred to hospital from the watch house in Maryborough, 250 kilometres north of Brisbane, on January 12.

Queensland Police Union (QPU) president Shane Prior said the prisoner was taken to hospital to remove drugs concealed inside his body.

At the time of his death, the man had been held in the watch house for five days, with his next court hearing scheduled for more than two weeks later.

Queensland return-to-prison warrants require the prisoner to be taken to a prison as soon as possible after being arrested.

Mr Prior said if the prisoner had been held at a nearby high-security prison with drug-screening facilities and a medical centre, the trip to hospital could have been avoided.

"That person should have been removed immediately from [police] custody and taken into Queensland Corrective Services [custody] so the appropriate medical attention could be placed on that prisoner," Mr Prior said.

A Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) spokesperson declined to comment on the prisoner's specific case, but said drugs needed to be removed from a prisoner's body in hospital.

"Prisoners suspected of internally concealing drugs are transported to hospital for a court-approved medical examination. This cannot be conducted within correctional facilities," the spokesperson said.

The Queensland coroner, police and the Crime and Corruption Commission declined to comment as the incident is under investigation.

Overcrowded watch houses

Police data shows the Maryborough watch house is the most crowded in the state.

In recent weeks, Maryborough watch house was at 200 per cent capacity, housing eight prisoners in cells built for four.

Conditions in police watch houses have been criticised by advocates and human rights organisations since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

A 2025 police review found the increasing length of time prisoners were being held in watch houses was one of the main sources of ongoing criticism.

It found prisoners bound for a correctional facility waited an average of five days in Queensland's watch houses, up 60 per cent in six years.

The review noted that while holding more prisoners in watch houses for longer was a solution for overcrowded prisons and youth detention centres, police had no such alternative.

While QCS policies were out of scope for the review, Mr Prior blamed watch house overcrowding on the prison service taking too long to accept prisoners into its custody.

"[QCS] work practices are defunct, and they're old, and they need to be updated," he said.

Watch house as 'overflow valve'

Terry Goldsworthy is a Bond University criminologist and former police officer.

Dr Goldsworthy said watch houses were designed to hold prisoners for a maximum of three days, and longer stays were being caused by overcrowded prisons.

"Within 24 hours would be the best practice for prisoners to be cleared out of police watch houses, and if they need to go into [QCS] custody, that should be happening," he said.

Maryborough Correctional Centre was singled out in a 2024 ombudsman's report on prison overcrowding.

The prison had exceeded its capacity of 500 cells with 784 beds "for many years", the report said.

According to QCS data, 741 prisoners were held at Maryborough Correctional Centre in 2025, increasing by 20 per cent over the previous five years.

Dr Goldsworthy said the Queensland government needed to take urgent action in the wake of laws that would increase the prison population further, such as tougher breach-of-bail laws.

"And if that's the case, then the government needs to act very quickly and ensure there's sufficient capacity in the corrective services system."

Last year, the Queensland government opened a high-security prison in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, with capacity to house more than 1,500 prisoners.

Corrective Services Minister Laura Gerber said the new prison, and $2 billion in funding to add 800 beds for inmates, demonstrated the government's commitment to expanding the state's prisons.

Dr Goldsworthy said the reported almost $3 million per bed was an "extraordinary" cost to taxpayers.