Victoria will build a new high-security youth justice facility by 2021 at a cost of more than $1m per bed, the premier, Daniel Andrews, announced on Monday.
The centre at Werribee South, described as “the highest-security youth justice facility that Victoria has ever seen”, will have capacity for up to 224 detainees and will include a 12-bed mental health unit and an eight-bed intensive supervision unit.
The announcement follows months of chaos in the state’s Parkville and Malmsbury youth detention facilities, with detainee rioting culminating in the escape of 15 young people last month.
In November, detainees caused such extensive damage to the Parkville centre that repair and fortifying work is still being carried out. A unit of the Barwon adult prison was regazetted as a youth detention facility to compensate for beds lost during the rioting.
On Monday morning, Andrews said construction work on the new centre would start next year, creating up to 3,000 jobs. Once it was opened, Parkville would be permanently closed, he said.
“The Comrie report, which provides a very damning commentary on the state of Parkville, talks about the fact that if a facility is not secure, then no rehabilitation, no effective programs, can be run in that facility,” Andrews said.
“So it is critically important that we build a new youth justice facility.”
Corrections staff from the adult system armed with tasers and capsicum spray, brought into the youth justice system following the escape of detainees last month, would remain permanently, Andrews said.
He also announced that the administration of youth justice would no longer be the responsibility of the Department of Human Services, with the role of the youth affairs minister, Jenny Mikakos, along with 650 other staff, now falling under the Department of Justice.
“This is a big change but it is change that we need,” Andrews said. “It reasserts that the most important priority is the safety of the Victorian community.”
Asked whether the new facility would have as much security as adult prisons, Andrews and Mikakos confirmed that many of the design features would be similar.
“It will be a high-security facility with six-metre perimeter fencing, ram-proof gates, it will have internal perimeter fencing around each unit,” Mikakos said.
“This is going to be the highest-security youth justice facility that Victoria has ever seen.”
The executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, Hugh de Kretser, said children in the justice system must be treated differently from adult detainees.
“Victoria has one of the lowest crime rates for 10- to 17-year-olds in the country and the focus on rehabilitation and age-appropriate facilities has helped to achieve this,” he said.
“Moving the management of youth justice to the department that manages adult prisons risks undermining this approach and ultimately community safety.”
De Kretser acknowledged significant ongoing infrastructure problems at Parkville. He said the new Werribee site provided an opportunity to build a facility that promotes rehabilitation.
“[The government] must learn from mistakes around the country and avoid a supermax mentality that will only harm community safety in the long run,” he said.
“Not enough attention is being put on the role excessive lockdowns and solitary confinement continue to play in the problems plaguing Victoria’s youth jails. Fixing that must be a priority.
“At a time when governments around the country are improving youth justice systems after seeing the horrors of Don Dale, the Andrews government is headed in the opposite direction.”
The CEO of Jesuit Social Services Julie Edwards described the transfer of youth justice to the department of justice as “a knee jerk, politically driven reaction to a complex problem”.
“The decision is short-sighted and Victorians will bear the consequences well into the future,” she said.
The majority of young people in the youth justice system were dealing with disadvantage including substance abuse issues and mental illness, she said.
“A successful youth justice system is one that helps young people address the broader circumstances of disadvantage behind their offending, to prepare them to become productive members of society.”
