Pizza and soft drink bribes end Malmsbury youth detention centre riot
TEEN rioters at a Victorian youth detention centre were bribed to get down from a roof with pizza and soft drinks.
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TEEN rioters at a youth detention centre were bribed to get down from a roof with pizza and soft drinks.
The Herald Sun has learned bosses at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre resorted to the unorthodox tactics to end a stand-off at the facility, in central Victoria, last month.
The same tactic is believed to have been used to end another incident at the Parkville Youth Justice Centre in which inmates climbed onto a roof and refused to come down.
Authorities have been reluctant to generate a confrontation with teens at the state’s youth detention centres.
They did not intervene during riotous scenes at Malmsbury on Saturday night in which 12 detainees ran amok.
Meanwhile, two teens from the centre face charges after they attacked two members of staff a day after the rioting.
One of the them is serving time for attacking somebody with a machete in Melbourne.
Youth criminals kept guards at bay for three hours during Saturday’s fracas, brandishing makeshift weapons and smashing windows and fittings.
Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos said some of the ringleaders had previously been imprisoned at the Parkville Youth Justice Centre.
She said they had been transferred to a section of Malmsbury, which is deemed to be the state’s highest security youth justice facility, and could now face being moved to an adult prison.
“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the behaviour by young people at Malmsbury on Saturday night,” Ms Mikakos said. She vowed “far tougher measures” to “stamp out this behaviour” but she would not reveal any new plans, saying that the government would announce changes “very soon”.
Opposition spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the system was “in crisis” as “the escalation of violence and destruction continues”.