Tear gas could be used to quell unrest at Victorian youth detention centres, outraging human rights experts.
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Last week the state government confirmed Corrections Victoria staff from adult jails, equipped with extendable batons and capsicum spray, will be deployed to the Malmsbury and Parkville juvenile detention centres.
Minister for Youth Affairs Jenny Mikakos has said, Victoria would get a "fit-for-purpose high security" youth justice system with more beds.
Now the Security and Emergency Services Group that provides high-level support in adult jails will be allowed to use tear gas on youths. The group currently operates from four adult prisons, according to Corrections Victoria.
The government has also committed to building a new prison for juvenile offenders.
The changes were announced shortly after chaos engulfed the youth justice system when inmates at the Malmsbury centre rioted and 15 broke out last week.
Some inmates then went on a 24 hour rampage of car jackings, home invasions and aggravated burglaries across Victoria before being arrested.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said the equipment had been authorised to "ensure the safety of the system".
He said the tear gas use was subject to the law and the Charter of Human Rights.
Tear gas was used by police to quell the riot at the Ravenhall remand centre in July 2015.
But Commissioner for Children and Young People Liana Buchanan, above, said tear gas was a highly toxic and dangerous substance.
"I am deeply concerned that it may be misused against children in the state's care," she said.
Human rights lawyers have blasted the plan to use adult prison guards armed with weapons to control youths, saying it could create "another Don Dale".
A royal commission into child detention in the Northern Territory last year was presented with shocking evidence of abuse including the use of spit hoods, restraints and tear gas at the Don Dale facility in the Northern Territory.
Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh de Kretser said the solution to the youth justice problems lay in fixing staff shortages, stopping "excessive use of lockdowns, tackling infrastructure problems and reducing high rates of youths in pre-trial detention.
"The problems in Victoria's youth justice system won't be fixed with tear gas and supermax units," he said.
Former Victorian children's commissioner Bernie Geary said he was "shocked and horrified" that tear gas may be used to control inmates at the youth detention centres.
"This is a way that we deal with the most heinous adult offenders," he said.
Mr Geary said too few people were speaking out about the human rights of youth inmates.
