$5.5m jail failure: Teen offenders at Barwon prison cost taxpayers $2100 an inmate per day

THE Andrews Government’s failed experiment to house teenage criminals in a maximum-security prison cost more than $2100 a juvenile inmate per day.

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THE Andrews Government’s failed experiment to house teenage criminals in a maximum-security prison cost more than $2100 a juvenile inmate per day.

Alarming new figures shows it cost Victorian taxpayers $5.5 million to keep the teen offenders at the Grevillea Unit in Barwon prison for just 183 days.

Adding to the bill the teens also caused $320,000 in damages to the unit during the six months it operated as a youth prison.

The eyewatering costs were revealed in a parliamentary inquiry and they do not include the costs to the department of three legal battles challenging if keeping teens at the prison was legal.

After a riot at the Parkville facility in November — which destroyed half of the youth prison’s units — Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos said about 40 teen criminals would be sent to the Grevillea Unit.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos.

But after court challenges only about 15 youths at a time were ever kept in the facility.

Government spokesman Nathan Motton said they did not apologise for using Grevillea Unit as a youth facility after teens trashed Parkville.

“We always said this was a temporary measure to ensure the safety of the community, our staff and the young offenders — no other appropriate youth justice facility was available to the government at that time,” he said.

Opposition Families and Children spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the huge costs were incurred because the government lost control of the youth justice system.

“Victorians are paying for the Andrews Labor Government’s mismanagement of youth justice with huge bills to taxpayers,” she said.

Cell wing at the Grevillea Unit at Barwon Prison.

In May a Supreme Court judge ruled as unlawful last November’s transfer of teenage criminals to Barwon Prison’s Grevillea unit, which had been specially redesignated a youth jail. Teens were moved out of the facility before May 23.
But despite the ruling the Herald Sun previously revealed the teens were treated to group takeaway nights and bribed to behave with the violent video game Halo.

The young inmates, who Premier Daniel Andrews called “the worst of the worst” were also given $5 to $15 a week in canteen money for buying lollies, noodles, popcorn and mini pizzas.

In an affidavit for the court case Grevillea unit general manager Robert Pemberton said the teens were managed using a therapeutic approach.

He said: “I see my role ... being to make the environment of the centre conducive to making each person detained a better member of the community.”

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