Fairfield's house of predators costs $4.5m a year to run

THE secretive sex offenders' facility at Fairfield has been operating in the suburb for 20 years.

An aerial view of the Fairfield facility.

THE secretive sex offenders' facility at Fairfield has been operating in the suburb for 20 years.

Sex offenders end up here because the court believes their rehabilitation would be better served through treatment than prison.

Some graduates have since been detained at a centre for sex offenders at Ararat. Others have gone to jail after committing crimes inside the facility. But many more have been released back into the community - only to offend again.

Instead of answering to the Justice Department, the program is run by a Department of Human Services unit called the Disability Forensic Assessment and Treatment Service.

Its main headquarters is often confused with the building it adjoins - the Thomas Embling Hospital, a 116-bed secure site for psychiatric patients who commit crimes.

DFATS has operated since 1990 but the intensive residential treatment program at Fairfield began in 1993. Seventy-six detainees have passed through.

From the outside, the facility looks like a prison. It is accessed down a long driveway between the white walls of Thomas Embling and the high, cage-like wire fences that make up its outer perimeter. There are video surveillance cameras every few metres. Despite this, there have been a number of escapes. In 2007, three offenders stole a key and walked out. Another offender once swam across the Yarra River to escape.

Inside, it is less jail-like and more institutional - laid out in a series of residential units, including common rooms for cooking, watching television and playing music. Sun sails provide shade for the men to go into the gardens to smoke.

But in direct contrast to the high wire walls, the men are ­allowed out into the community to "test'' their progress.

First accompanied by staff, they are allowed access to shopping centres and sports facilities, where unsuspecting members of the public are used as guinea pigs for the staff to test the reactions of the pedophiles and rapists when they're exposed to the public.

If they pass the tests, they are allowed out unaccompanied. Using money provided by the taxpayer, these repeat offenders go shopping at Epping Plaza and attend movies there.

They are also allowed unaccompanied access to the University Hill town centre and shopping plaza and Northlands shopping centre, and walk around the suburb of Fairfield, including shops along nearby Heidelberg Rd.

One played golf at a nearby driving range. Others have played basketball in local teams, and been go-karting.

Several have offended while out on escorted day-leave.

Only a handful of detainees are in the facility at any time, with between two and three houses, or units, operating.

There were 12 men there last week.

As well, DFATS has several halfway houses in the community where men are moved as they progress through the treatment stages. These used to be randomly placed in the community, but are now mostly within the Plenty Residential Services facilities at University Hill at Bundoora.

Between two and four offenders share Kookaburra, Frances House and Charlton House at any given time.

The main facilities at Fairfield cost $4.5 million a year to run, government figures show. The halfway houses cost another $1.8 million, bringing the annual cost to Victorian taxpayers to $6.3 million.

One DFATS resident sexually abused his sister, cousin and three-year-old daughter.

Another former resident is sexually attracted to babies in nappies. A third man rapes elderly women. Staff who work with these men are routinely abused, assaulted and sexually intimidated. One detainee was sent to jail after he sexually attacked a female staff member.

Many of the men at DFATS have been diagnosed with only mild intellectual disabilities and are able to live independently when they are released.