Kyneton ALP weighs in on youth justice debate

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s youth justice centres, branch president Eric Dearricott wrote that “until very recently the people of Malmsbury did not regard the detainees at the centre as a threat”.

“Instead the centre and its youth residents were seen as a valued part of the community,” he wrote.

Mr Dearricott said while the detainees still had some involvement in the wider community, the makeup of the cohort at the facility had changed in recent years, saying “there’s a sadness about the place that things aren’t quite the same as they used to be.”

“The detainees actually did work in the community, not only Malmsbury, but elsewhere in the district and people didn’t feel threatened by it at all,” he said.

“As I understand it at least, it used to have more lower level detainees, ones who weren’t serious offenders and now there are a lot of the old-style ones but there are some offenders who are there for more serious matters, so the mix has changed somewhat.”

Mr Dearricott stressed the branch was not being critical of the government and were not experts in the field, but said “the aim should be to keep rehabilitation at the centre of the goals for youth detention”.

“There are two elements to giving people terms in detention, one is as a consequence of an inappropriate action, but the another should be rehabilitation,” he said.

“These are young people, we should be able to rehabilitate a significant proportion of them and that should be the goal, knowing in some cases you’re not going to be successful, but in a lot of cases you should be able to be successful.”

The comments follow a report from Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass which found the use of lockdowns and continued staffing issues were among a “significant range of pressures” placed on staff and young people at the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre.

The report detailed the deterioration of conditions in the lead up to a number of riots at the centre earlier this year, including young people kept in their rooms for up to 23 hours per day for two weeks.

Ms Glass said an outcome needed to be found which prevented young people from becoming adult criminals.

“It is neither in the interests of public safety nor the public purse for young people to become entrenched in a life of crime, cycling through youth justice centres into adult prisons to which all too often they return,” she said.