Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre: workers bashed by teen inmates
A worker was rushed to hospital and another left with a titanium plate in his face after a series of brutal attacks by teen inmates at Malmsbury youth prison.
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A staff member has been taken to hospital after being attacked by a teenage inmate at a Victorian youth justice centre.
The Herald Sun has been told an inmate attacked the worker with a glass bottle at the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre, north-west of Melbourne, on Tuesday morning.
It is understood the staff member was struck inside the facility’s new Topaz unit and suffered facial injuries.
The assault follows a spate of attacks reported in youth detention facilities over recent weeks.
It is believed a worker was bashed to the ground on a basketball court and told to hand over his keys, before being slashed with a shiv at the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre in Parkville.
In another assault, another inmate attacked a worker with a stapler last week.
In late July, a staff member who had been working at the centre for just a matter of months had to have a titanium plate inserted into his face after being stomped and beaten more than 20 times by a teenager in the centre’s Deakin unit.
Employees have for several years expressed safety concerns over the attacks.
In 2019, they walked off the job after a succession of assaults on workers.
The Herald Sun has contacted Victoria’s Department of Justice for comment on the incident.
CALL FOR REFORM
WorkSafe has ordered a raft of safety improvements at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre after a horrific assault on a worker.
The demands, contained in a report by the workplace watchdog, have come amid a spate of violent attacks at both Malmsbury and the Parkville complex in Melbourne.
A WorkSafe inspector visited Malmsbury on July 20 after a staff member was struck and stomped more than 20 times in a savage onslaught at the hands of a teenager in the Deakin unit.
Surgeons have inserted a titanium plate in the victim’s face because of his jaw injuries, suffered while he was alone with about nine inmates.
It is believed he had been working in the system for a matter of months.
The WorkSafe inspector, Scott Armistead, observed a number of shortcomings at Malmsbury.
These included that there was no specific policy or procedure telling employees to not work alone with up to nine young people.
“I observed a safe system of work associated with supervision of young people at the workplace has not been provided, therefore a notice was issued,” he wrote.
Mr Armistead also noted: “There is no policy or procedure detailing specific control measures for risks associated with occupational violence and aggression by young people at the workplace”.
Mr Armistead said management needed to:
Create an overarching risk assessment for the supervision of young people;
Develop and implement a formal policy for supervising detainees in Deakin;
Identify a minimum staff to young person ratio;
Make sure employees are supervised when carrying out jobs which reduced their “situational awareness”.
A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman said several measures had since been introduced to keep both staff and youth offenders safe as part of the state government’s $1.2 billion investment to overhaul the youth justice system.
“To improve safety within youth justice centres we’ve introduced dynamic risk assessments, additional behaviour support specialists, targeted behavioural programs and an Intensive Intervention Unit for the most high-risk young people in custody,” the spokeswoman said.
The safety of staff and young people in youth justice is our utmost priority – violent behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Employees at Malmsbury have for years spoken of concerns that the centre is not safe, partly due to understaffing.
In 2019 they walked off the job after a succession of assaults on workers.
There have been other attacks at Parkville in the past fortnight.
In one of those incidents, a worker was bashed to the ground on a basketball court and told to hand over his keys, before being slashed with a shiv.
Last Sunday night, a male staff member’s arm was broken and a female colleague was punched in the face.
The alleged assaults come after tough new laws were introduced in 2017 to kerb assaults against staff.
If convicted of assault, youth offenders serve their sentence on top of existing detention periods.
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