Parkville, Malmsbury youth justice centres most hazardous workplaces in country

Youth justice workers at two Victoria prisons are being attacked and taken to hospital at an alarming rate from assaults by detainees.

Assaults by detainees send youth justice workers to hospital at an average rate of almost one a month.

The figures indicate the Parkville and Malmsbury youth justice centres are among the most hazardous workplaces in Australia.

The Herald Sun has found 22 staff were taken to hospital after being attacked between July 2019 and last month.

This is based only on media reports and there may be other hospital cases that have gone unreported, as well as minor injuries dealt with internally.

The numbers also do not ­include detainee-on-detainee assaults on more vulnerable victims, which are also a regular occurrence.

A total of 22 youth justice workers were taken to hospital after being attacked by detainees. Picture: Rob Leeson.

Attack rates have dropped since a crisis period several years ago when the Department of Justice introduced several measures aimed at curbing the violence.

But there is fresh concern after several staff hospital trips last month, including a worker punched and stomped more than 20 times.

Surgeons were forced to insert a titanium plate to repair the damage.

Youth justice sources told the Herald Sun that one staff member would lose the sight of one eye after an attack this year.

The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents youth justice officers, said the assaults were happening with “sickening regularity”.

“Working in youth justice is becoming the most dangerous job in the land and no one seems to have a solution,” CPSU secretary Karen Batt said.

“You can go to work and watch someone get violently assaulted almost every day. Your supervisors, your colleagues, the young offenders on your watch.”

Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Kamal Farouque said such rates of assault indicated there was a problem.

Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre is among the most hazardous workplaces in the country. Picture: Rob Leeson.

He said it was accepted that such centres were difficult places for those in custody, but there was an obligation to maintain a safe workplace.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesman said the government had introduced targeted programs for high-risk offenders and increased staff numbers, with an additional 75 full-time frontline youth justice staff employed in the past two years.

“The number of serious incidents in youth justice facilities has decreased over the past three years, including a 42 per cent reduction in category one incidents from 2018-19 to 2020-21,” the spokesman said.

Opposition spokesman for youth and justice David Southwick said: “Staff deserve better than to go to work every day not knowing if they’ll end up back home or in a hospital.”