A youth justice worker was taken to hospital with cuts to his face after he was allegedly assaulted by a detainee at Victoria’s Malmsbury youth justice centre on Saturday.
The incident is reported to have happened about 8pm in the prison’s Latrobe unit, the same day that a female staff member was allegedly inappropriately touched by another inmate.
Fairfax Media reported the man, aged in his 50s, was hit in the face with a table tennis bat. He was taken in an ambulance to nearby Kyneton Hospital, about 90km north of Melbourne, for treatment.
A spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services said the incident was being investigated by police.
“The welfare of staff is paramount and we will provide appropriate support for staff involved in these incidents,” the spokesman said.
So far no one has been charged.
It is the latest in a string of incidents at the youth justice centres, which houses young men aged 18 to 20 who have been sentenced on a youth justice order.
In late January a group of 13 detainees escaped the centre after allegedly stealing a ring of keys from the guards, then stealing a car, prompting the Department of Health and Human Services to replace locks throughout the centre.
The department is in the process of handing over management of the centre to Corrections Victoria as part of a crackdown by the Andrews government, which had been hounded by the state opposition after being perceived as soft on crime.
The Andrews government also announced plans to build a new high security youth justice facility for 224 detainees, at a cost of $1m a bed.
