Human rights advocates are taking the state government to the Supreme Court in a bid to remove the remaining 15 or so teenagers from the maximum security Barwon prison.
The case, due to be heard on Tuesday morning, comes after the Andrews government agreed to transfer any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children out of the adult system.
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Juveniles face adult prison after Parkville riots
Forty juvenile offenders over the age of 16 face adult prison following riots at the Parkville detention centre, but the government can't say which facility the youths will be sent, or for how long. Courtesy ABC News 24.
The teenagers were transferred to the adult jail after causing an estimated $2 million worth of damage to the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre in Parkville last month.
Inmates destroyed computers, smashed security cameras and ripped apart parts of the centre's ceiling and walls.
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The Human Rights Law Centre's director of legal advocacy, Ruth Barson, said Barwon is "unequivocally unsafe for children".
"Children continue to be held in appalling conditions, including long periods of time locked in their cells, minimal periods of time in fresh air with no access to proper schooling or programs," she said.
"The government can't just pick and choose the children it wants to protect. No child should be locked in Barwon."
Fitzroy Legal Service lawyer Meghan Fitzgerald said some of the teenagers were finishing year 10 just a few weeks ago.
"Now they're locked in a concrete cell for most of the day, staring at the ceiling," she said.
The court case will test whether the government is acting in accordance with the Victorian Charter of Human Rights.
Victoria's Minister for Families and Children, Jenny Mikakos, has defended the decision to temporarily house the detainees in Barwon and said the government's actions are consistent with the charter.