‘Orchestrated violence’: workers fed up with riots at youth justice centres
|
Version 0 of 1. The union representing justice officers in Victoria says it is fed up with the “sustained pattern of orchestrated violence” which it says erupts between two youth justice centres on most Saturday nights. A spokesman for the Victorian branch of the Community and Public Sector Union, Julian Kennelly, said he was extremely concerned about the safety of justice staff. On Saturday night about 10 youths rioted at the Malmsbury youth justice centre, about 100km north-west of Melbourne. It took authorities just over two hours to bring the rioting under control, which left substantial damage to the Deakin unit of the facility. Victoria police are now investigating. The riot was followed by another, less serious incident on Sunday afternoon, Kelly said, after an offender lashed out at a youth justice officer over the phone use policy. “This is the second time in six weeks they’ve destroyed the Deakin unit,” Kennelly said. “The violence can sometimes stem from recruiting exercises among offenders, with the older ones trying to recruit the younger ones to participate in gang activity. They often start to harm other inmates, then the staff step in, then they tend to start belting the staff. And it seems to be happening now every Saturday at Malmsbury or at the Melbourne youth justice centre in Parkville. “It it’s not one centre, it’s the other.” He said staff felt unsafe and there were high levels of absenteeism because of the stresses associated with the job. Contractors were often recruited from labour hire agencies in their place, he said, who may be ill-trained to cope with violent youth. “They let the kids burn themselves out, was the expression used to me,” Kennelly told 3AW. He wants the ringleaders to be separated into either another unit or transferred to other, higher security youth justice centres. Last month, staff at the Melbourne youth justice centre were forced to barricade themselves into a room after about a dozen inmates began to riot, prompting an internal review. Victoria’s children’s minister, Jenny Mikakos, on Monday afternoon promised a crackdown on the youth responsible for the riots. “It’s appalling and it’s totally unacceptable and police are now investigating the matter and charges may well be laid,” she told ABC radio. |