Victoria's adult prison anti-riot squad could be sent into youth justice facilities as part of a suite of new measures being considered by the Andrews government in response to a spate of breakouts, assaults and property damage.
As police continue to search for a small group of youths who escaped from a youth justice centre at Malmsbury on Wednesday, Fairfax Media can reveal the government is considering amending the Children and Young Persons Act to allow Corrections Victoria's Security Emergency Services Group to operate in youth justice centres.
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Malmsbury riot: four teen escapees arrested
Four teens are arrested in Melbourne's southeast but three remain at large after breaking out of a youth detention centre amid a riot and allegedly carjacking a pensioner's SUV on Wednesday. Courtesy Seven News Melbourne.
Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos is set to hold a press conference on Thursday morning to respond to Wednesday's breakout at Malmsbury. She is expected to outline a series of new initiatives to regain control of a system in crisis.
At present the SESG, a highly trained group which specialises in quelling riots and removing prisoners who refuse to leave cells, is prevented by law from getting involved in incidents in youth justice centres. This means Victoria Police and Department of Health and Human Services personnel have to respond to problems inside youth justice facilities such as Parkville and Malmsbury.
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SESG officers are equipped with dogs, capsicum spray, batons and, when required, have access to firearms. The government is aware that any move to get the SESG unit inside youth justice may result in a backlash from human rights advocates.
"You have a group specially trained to respond to the situations like we've seen at Parkville and Malmsbury yet we can't use them. So we have to call police to respond who then have to go through their own set of protocols to determine how they will respond and that can take hours," a youth justice source told Fairfax Media.
Fairfax Media understands youth justice workers wanted the SESG to help respond to incidents inside the Grevillea unit at Barwon Prison on the weekend, involving a small number of youths who were being controversially held in adult jails. But they were told they could not call upon the specially trained officers because it would be a breach of the law.
Victoria's Community and Public Sector Union has been strongly lobbying Ms Mikakos and other ministers for changes to the Children and Young Persons Act in order to protect staff and other young detainees from assaults.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday that the Government would make major changes to the youth justice system, but did not elaborate.
The introduction of the SESG is just one of the changes the union has been pushing for. Union secretary Karen Batt told Fairfax Media that the government had to introduce new laws to make assaulting a youth worker a specific offence.
This change would mirror existing laws which make it an offence to assault a police officer, health worker or prison guard.
"We also believe that the Children and Young Persons Act needs to be amended so as there are clear consequences for such violent outbursts," Ms Batt said.
"We have also sought intervention by Worksafe to review the system of workplace in Youth Justice as we do not believe the current model provides a safe workplace for staff or for the majority of clients who are not participating in this violence."
Ms Batt said Victoria needed a new purpose-built youth justice centre which had facilities to enable violent or troubled clients to be separated. This would allow the rest of the centre to run education and rehabilitation programs without interruption.
The Human Rights Law Centre's Hugh De Kretzer – a fierce critic of the government's decision to use the Barwon adult maximum security jail to house a small group of young offenders – said the government needed to ensure both sound security and rehabilitation programs.
"We have seen from the Northern Territory what happens when you adopt a so called super max mentality to the management of youth justice centres.
"There is no doubt that the government needs to regain control of the centres. Physical infrastructure is part of the answer but a critical part is the staffing and policy issues that have plagued the centres. You can have the hardest physical facilities but it still won't be safe and secure if you don't get the policy, staff and rehabilitation issues right."