Terrified Parkville Youth Justice Precinct guards ‘buying’ safety by bribing young inmates with drugs, porn
Traumatised prison guards have lifted the lid on the desperate lengths some staff are going to protect themselves from violent young inmates, including bribing them with drugs and porn.
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Guards at a Melbourne youth prison are bribing teenage inmates with drugs, pornography and extra phone time to protect themselves from violent assaults by its worst offenders, insiders say.
The Herald Sun has spoken to multiple current and former staff at the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct, who have launched legal action against the Victorian government for exposing them to a litany of assaults by inmates and forcing them to delete incident reports about violent attacks.
They claim a top-down culture of “bullying”, combined with chronic understaffing and a lack of support, has left some guards so fearful for their own safety that they rely on the most hardened young men in custody to help keep fellow inmates in check.
Staff have told of inmates receiving “treats” from guards as incentives to control fellow inmates units and to avoid injuring staff.
They included pornography, illicit drugs, internet access, extra phone calls and additional time at the pool or gym.
It comes as damning new WorkSafe figures reveal of the 1450 accepted claims from injured staff since 2019, a total 486 of those were youth justice workers.
More than 200 of those claims were due to staff being assaulted by a person.
The Herald Sun revealed last year the prison union had threatened to pursue criminal charges against the Department of Justice and Community Safety, which runs Parkville, over any future assaults.
“Steve”, a guard who asked that his real name not be published out of fear of retribution from prison management, is planning to sue the state.
Steve said it was an open secret that some staff “buy their safety” by giving young prisoners access to banned goods, including illicit drugs, to ensure they were not attacked or injured.
He said other guards were so overwhelmed by out of control youths that they offered older inmates incentives to help them manage the units.
“Some of these (staff) are even still allowed to work in supervisory or higher positions if they tend to be particularly agreeable with management,” Steve said.
“Young people’s behaviour has gotten worse, the consequences for bad behaviour are not almost non-existent now.”
“Mary”, not her real name, worked at Parkville for 16 years before leaving her role as a supervisor in 2018 and claimed she suffered PTSD, depression and anxiety as a result of being assaulted and left alone with suicidal teenagers for hours on end.
With her legal claim under way, she told the Herald Sun inmates were left to wreak havoc inside their units because guards were often severely understaffed.
“Hardened inmates would manage the behaviour of other inmates and maintain the stability of the dynamic,” she said.
“It is handing the inmates the keys.”
Mary said more senior staff often forced guards to alter, and in some cases delete, incident reports.
“Management would delete or downplay them to appear much, much less serious than they actually were,” she said.
“The stress of working under people that I consider to be criminals, not the inmates, and on top of that, increasing stress of managing volatile young people under poor management has left me as a wreck.”
Another former worker, who recently received a half-million-dollar payout from the government, said traumatised staff were affected for the rest of their lives by being made to play down major mental health concerns and being physically assaulted.
He was asked “on several occasions” to mislead WorkSafe representatives and alter official documentation.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety declined requests for comment from Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan.
But a spokeswoman said the Department had a zero-tolerance approach to inmates assaulting staff, bullying and harassment, with staffing matters investigated by WorkSafe.
“Any violence towards our dedicated and hard working staff is totally unacceptable. We take any allegations of assault or criminal behaviour seriously and refer such matters to Victoria Police for investigation,” the spokeswoman said.
DJCS did not address allegations of staff being made to falsify WorkSafe incident reports.
Zoe Sinadinos, Mary’s lawyer from Arnold Thomas and Becker, said her client would suffer lasting trauma as a result of her time at Parkville.
“There is an undeniable culture of fear at the Parkville Youth Justice Centre,’ Ms Sinadinos said.
“Going to work should never feel like a daily battle, where employees are left in constant uncertainty about what they might face.”
A Community and Public Sector Union spokesman said a “complete overhaul” of the youth justice system was needed because youths were not receiving the right care.
He said guards were right to launch legal action against the government because prison management did little to prevent dangerous incidents from happening.
Parkville holds inmates aged between 15 and 17 years old.
Parkville Youth Justice Centre incident timeline:
November 10, 2024: Inmates assault staff and steal a staff pass to access a secure area
November 10, 2024: Staff threatened by an inmate holding a fire extinguisher
October 11, 2024: Two inmates hold a female guard captive and hold a knife to her throat
September 2024: Two inmates stab and beat a fellow detainee at Parkville
January 31, 2023: Seven inmates bash a 34-year-old officer so severely he goes unconscious
March 17, 2021: An inmate stabs a worker in the forehead with a metal screw attached to a pen lid
October 27, 2020: An inmate is found unconscious in his cell after suffering a seizure
June 29, 2020: A prisoner tries to escape via the basketball court
April 7, 2020: Two workers and a prisoner are hospitalised after an inmate forced their way through a security gate
February 20, 2019: A shirtless inmate sparks a standoff with prison staff after climbing onto the roof
January 7, 2017: A riot is sparked after a group of inmates who snuck into the pool unsupervised before turning pool fencing into makeshift weapons and breaking another inmate out of their cell. Thirty-five police officers called in
November 12-14, 2016: Up to 40 inmates riot over two days inside the prison, causing major damage
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