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Keeping juveniles in adult jail is unlawful, Victorian judge rules Youths to remain in adult jail despite ruling their transfer was illegal
(about 3 hours later)
Keeping juvenile offenders in a Victorian adult jail is unlawful and against their human rights, a senior judge has ruled. A group of juvenile offenders will spend Christmas in Victoria’s maximum security adult jail despite a court ruling that their transfer to Barwon prison was illegal.
On Wednesday, the Victorian supreme court judge Greg Garde declared that the state government’s decision to transfer a group of youths to the maximum security Barwon prison was unlawful and “failed to give proper consideration to their human rights”. A judge initially ordered the 15 teenagers be moved to a youth facility by Thursday afternoon but later changed his mind after the government argued it had nowhere else to house them.
Garde handed down his judgment after lawyers for a group of teenage offenders challenged their transfer to the state’s maximum security prison when riots damaged the Malmsbury and Parkville youth detention facilities. The juvenile offenders were first transferred to the Grevillea unit at Barwon in November after they trashed the Parkville and Malmsbury youth detention facilities during riots.
The Victorian government says it has nowhere else to send the teenage offenders, who are still in the Grevillea unit at Barwon. The unit has been operated as a youth remand and custodial centre by the Department of Health and Humam Services. Up to 40 youths were transferred to the prison in November. Victorian supreme court Justice Greg Garde on Wednesday ruled the transfer was unlawful because it “failed to give proper consideration to their human rights”.
Garde ordered the youths be transferred to another youth facility in Victoria by 4pm on Thursday. But after the government argued it had nowhere else to send the teenage offenders, Justice Garde granted a stay on their removal.
Government lawyers immediately moved to appeal against the judgment and sought a stay on the teens’ transfer. “My decision is that the best thing possible for the young persons, at this point in time, is unfortunately to remain where they are,” he said on Wednesday afternoon.
There were no other facilities available to house the youths, and the government didn’t have the capacity to meet Thursday’s deadline, the court was told on Wednesday. “Simply because there is nowhere else that is satisfactory or safe for them to go.”
Repairs to the damaged sections of the Parkville and Malmsbury detention centres would take up to eight months, the government argued. The stay is in place until December 28 pending further orders by the court and the government’s intention to appeal Wednesday’s judgment.
But Brian Walters QC, acting for the teenagers, said: “We strongly contest the false assertion that there is nowhere else for these people to go.” The Grevillea unit at Barwon prison is being operated as a youth remand and custodial centre by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Ruth Barson, the director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, says Wednesday’s ruling is a “significant outcome” for children’s rights in Victoria. Up to 40 youths were transferred to the prison in November after riots damaged the two youth detention facilities.
“Jailing children in an adult prison is wrong,” she said in a statement. “We’re thrilled that as of today no Victorian child will have to spend Christmas in appalling conditions in the state’s most notorious adult jail.”
The government’s bid to postpone the removal of the youths from Barwon Prison continues.
The Andrews government in late November agreed to move Indigenous teens out of Barwon after a legal challenge was launched by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.The Andrews government in late November agreed to move Indigenous teens out of Barwon after a legal challenge was launched by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.
Lawyers for the remaining non-Indigenous youths then challenged their transfer on the basis it was unlawful and breached their human rights.
In his judgment on Wednesday, Justice Garde found the Grevillea unit had not been lawfully established as a youth remand centre under the relevant legislation.
He said the government had transferred the youths for “an improper and extraneous purpose” of emergency accommodation.
The government has been ordered to pay the costs of the teenagers’ legal challenge.
The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, said youth affairs minister Jenny Mikakos should lose her job following Wednesday’s legal defeat.
The Greens argue Labor should abandon its “race to the bottom” on law and order issues in Victoria.
“That the government postured over their breach of the human rights of children in the youth justice system is sickening,” the Greens MP Nina Springle said.