Detainees injured during riot at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre
A riot at Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre — which saw offenders steal keys from prison guards — may have been triggered by teens not wanting to be moved to a new jail.
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A riot at the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre may have been sparked by detainees’ not wanting to be transferred to a new jail.
The Herald Sun has been told that there has been reluctance among some inmates at Malmsbury about being moved to the new $420m Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Malmsbury is expected to close by the end of the year and many of those held there will be going to Cherry Creek.
It is believed a staff member from Cherry Creek was at Malmsbury when trouble broke out there on Tuesday evening, resulting in three teenagers being taken to hospital.
There are unconfirmed reports that staff were taken hostage during the chaos as detainees stole keys to access restricted areas and used a radio to monitor the response from authorities.
There was trouble at Cherry Creek just days after the first inmates were transferred there in late August when a worker was brutally bashed.
Emergency services were called to the scene where there were unconfirmed reports of a riot.
The Herald Sun has been told detainees were injured when the violence broke out.
A Department of Justice and Community Safety statement said no staff were injured.
“Staff have responded quickly to resolve an incident at the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre,” the statement said.
“Victoria Police were also on site to assist.”
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes confirmed on Wednesday morning that the youth offenders had stolen a set of keys from guards.
She flagged that there will be consequences for the offenders involved.
“My information is that they obtained a set of keys from a guard,” she said.
“My understanding is that no staff have been hurt.”
“There will be consequences.”
Ms Symes couldn’t provide further details on the incident but conceded the government had major concerns for the safety of staff in the facility.
“Youth offenders have engaged in unacceptable behaviour towards guards in the past,” she said.
“They’re not an everyday occurrence but it is a concern.”
“We’re all concerned about safety of staff.”
Opposition youth justice spokesman Brad Battin said Labour had lost control of youth justice.
He said the chaos was the latest in a long list of incidents in youth justice centres
“Unfortunately, the Labor Government’s solution is to ship at least 10 high-risk inmates from Malmsbury overnight to Cherry Creek, where there has already been serious incidents because staff are not appropriately experienced,” Mr Battin said.
He said Minister Enver Erdogan should answer a series of key questions, including how many riots had happened in the youth justice system in the past six months, how many were not reported and how many staff and detainees had been injured in that period.
Malmsbury has been plagued in recent years by detainee unrest, attacks on staff and inmate-on-inmate violence.
The State Government decided earlier this year that Malmsbury would close and that youths would in future be sent to the new Cherry Creek facility west of Melbourne and to the Parkville Youth Justice Centre.
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