Contemporary detention environments (Volume 15)

In this volume, the Royal Commission made recommendations to prevent child sexual abuse from occurring in detention environments and, where it does occur, to help ensure effective responses. The Royal Commission focused on youth custody and immigration detention, recognising that children are generally safer in community settings than in closed environments.

Youth Justice custody in Victoria aims to provide a secure environment for the custody and rehabilitation of children and young people convicted or accused of committing a criminal offence. The Victorian Government is committed to ensuring the safety of children and young people in Youth Justice custody and continues its work to prevent all forms of child abuse from taking place in these environments and ensure effective responses if it does.

United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Australia signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) on 21 December 2017. The Victorian Government supports the principles of the OPCAT and has a strong oversight regime to ensure people in places of detention are protected.

The Victorian Government has passed the Monitoring of Places of Detention by the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (OPCAT) Act 2022. This Act enables visits by the United Nations to places of primary detention, which are part of the OPCAT obligations. The Act passed in the Victorian Parliament on 20 September 2022 and came into operation on 11 October 2022.

Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre

The Victorian Government has made a capital investment of $420 million to build a new Youth Justice Precinct at Cherry Creek, near Werribee, with a capacity of 140 rooms. In addition, $357 million has been invested to commission and operationalise the facility.

Cherry Creek will accommodate 15 to 17 year old males who have been sentenced or are on long term remand. The facility achieved practical completion in August 2022 and will begin accommodating young people in 2023 when 56 rooms and eight mental health beds are scheduled to open. Cherry Creek is a flagship Youth Justice facility, purpose-built to focus on rehabilitation, reduce reoffending and ensuring staff can provide more targeted support to help address the complex needs of individual young people.

Key design features of Cherry Creek include smaller accommodation units, a dedicated health centre and two mental health units, purpose-built buildings to deliver programs and education and vocational training, and a multifaith and cultural centre.

Strengthening of Parkville and Malmsbury Youth Justice centres

Significant investments have been made to strengthen Youth Justice’s custodial infrastructure. The Victorian Government has invested $58 million for strengthening existing Youth Justice precincts to improve safety.

Works have been completed to strengthen multiple accommodation units at Parkville Youth Justice Precinct and Malmsbury Youth Justice Precinct, such as removing glass across the sites where possible and replacing with polycarbonate and installing secure fencing to a range of areas. Further works at Parkville are anticipated to be undertaken by June 2023.

Increased training for Youth Justice custodial staff

The government delivers training to custodial staff to increase capability to meet the support needs of young people in custody (see Figure 3 for further detail). This includes staff developing the skills to identify and respond to young people’s experience of trauma in an appropriate and safe manner. Custodial staff have also continued to receive training to meet the needs of young people from diverse backgrounds and with cognitive impairments.

Figure 3. Completed training packages by Youth Justice custodial staff

Youth Justice custodial therapeutic support for young people

The Victorian Government has contracted three service providers to provide primary health, mental health, rehabilitation and Youth Offending Programs services for young people engaged in the youth justice custodial system. The Youth Offending Programs service providers also deliver services to young people involved under community Youth Justice supervision.

Primary health and primary mental health services are accessible to all young people in custody and include medical, allied health, pharmacy, pathology, and referrals to specialist services. The primary health service also conducts initial mental health assessments and develops risk management plans in relation to suicide and self-harm risk for young people in custody.

Specialist mental health services, including psychiatry, psychology, neuropsychology and occupational therapy. These services are available for all young people in custody.

The Youth Offending Programs service includes alcohol and drug programs and brief psychosocial programs aimed at developing skills in areas such as managing emotions and communication; these programs are available for all young people in custody. The Youth Offending Programs service also includes programs aimed at addressing young people's offending behaviours, based on a comprehensive assessment of treatment needs. This includes the Youth Offending Program, Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality (MAPPS), for young people who have engaged in sexual offending. Services to support therapeutic and behavioural responses to promote positive behaviour change for young people who engage in inappropriate sexualised behaviour in custody are also provided.

These services are not designed to directly target the symptoms or experiences of survivors of child sexual abuse, but meet the individual physical and mental health needs for each young person in custody. Depending on the service provider, support may be provided to survivors of child sexual abuse as part of a broader holistic care plan for a young person, however it is unlikely that this would be the core purpose. Referrals to other agencies like Gatehouse and Australian Childhood Foundation, as well as private therapists, are available when these needs are identified for a young person, whether they are in custody or in the community. Additionally, young people in custody who disclose being a survivor of sexual abuse are referred to the primary health and primary mental health service for review by a mental health professional following the disclosure, with further recommendations made dependent on the young person's needs.

While these services do not specifically provide therapeutic treatment to survivors of child sexual abuse, they are an effective means of support. In the 2021–22 financial year, the following services were provided to young people across youth justice community and custody:

• Caraniche provided a service (assessment and/or treatment) to 523 unique clients over 9,054 scheduled sessions in custody and community
• Correct Care Australasia provided a service (primary health, mental health, diagnostic and clinical services) to 511 unique clients over 28,840 sessions in custody, and
• Orygen provided a service (assessment and/or treatment) to 292 unique clients over 4,456 sessions in custody.

Note that these figures represent the total number of occasions of service over the 2021–22 financial year and are not specific to interventions related to trauma or child sexual abuse. In particular, the primary health data incorporates all clinical interventions, for example dental care or physiotherapy.

Youth Justice custodial complaints handling system

The complaints system was established in consultation with children and young people in custody. Children and young people in custody have free and unrestricted access to the Victorian Ombudsman and the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) via the Arunta telephone system, should they wish to make a complaint. A direct line to CCYP was introduced in 2022, which is in addition to onsite visits from the CCYP’s Independent Visitor Program, which has been in operation for ten years.

Complaints can be made in person with custodial unit staff, in person with Independent Visitors and on the phone to the Victorian Ombudsman and CCYP. A further safe avenue to receive and respond to sexual assault disclosures is through the health screening process on entry into custodial centres.

All children and young people are seen by a nurse, which occurs within 12 hours of admission for Aboriginal young people and 24 hours for non-Aboriginal young people. A comprehensive health assessment from a medical practitioner also occurs within 72 hours of admission.

Cultural safety for Aboriginal children and young people in Youth Justice centres

Wirkara Kulpa (pronounced WEER-ghara GHOUL-par), Victoria’s first Aboriginal Youth Justice Strategy, sets out the government’s approach to address the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children and young people in the justice system. Over the life of the strategy, the Victorian Government in partnership with the Aboriginal community will deliver significant reforms, initiatives, and programs to reduce the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children and young people in the justice system with a focus on cultural safety, strengthening Aboriginal children and young people's cultural identity and connection to family, community and Country.

Wirkara Kulpa was launched on 17 February 2022, followed by a special youth friendly launch on 2 June 2022 to provide Aboriginal children and young people with information about the strategy in a visual and easily readable child and youth friendly format

Aboriginal self-determination is the foundational principle that has shaped the development of Wirkara Kulpa. Its development has been led by the Aboriginal Justice Caucus, under Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja (The Aboriginal Justice Agreement Phase 4, AJA 4).

Wirkara Kulpa’s vision is that Aboriginal children and young people are not in the youth justice system because they are strong in their culture, connected to families and communities, and living healthy, safe, resilient, thriving and culturally rich lives.

It sets out five key priorities or domains where outcomes for children and young people need to be achieved over the next 10 years:

1. Empowering young people, families and community to uphold change.
2. Protecting cultural rights and increasing connection to family, community and culture.
3. Diverting young people and reducing overrepresentation.
4. Working towards an Aboriginal-led justice response.
5. Creating a fair and equitable system for Aboriginal children and young people.

A set of goals expressed in the voice of Aboriginal children and young people will guide the development and implementation of all actions outlined in Wirkara Kulpa (see Figure 4 for further detail). The goals are informed by what Aboriginal children and young people have said they want and need for the youth justice system to be safe and effective.

A suite of custodial specific Wirkara Kulpa actions have been implemented which will ensure Aboriginal children and young people are safe, their cultural rights are upheld and protected, and they can maintain and strengthen connections to family, community and Country. These include:

• Aboriginal Liaison Officers in Parkville and Malmsbury youth justice precincts to advocate and respond to the cultural needs of Aboriginal children and young people
• promotion and protection of Aboriginal children and young people’s cultural rights, for example, through access to cultural leave so Aboriginal young people can meet their cultural responsibilities and obligations
• cultural programs and services that strengthen connection to culture, family and community including Elders visits, yarning circles, cultural activities and celebrations of significant events such as NAIDOC
• pro-active support to strengthen Aboriginal young people’s family connections through family visits (both through video links and face to face)
• dedicated cultural spaces in youth justice custodial precincts
• dedicated Aboriginal Disability Advisor working across Malmsbury and Parkville youth justice precincts
• Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency-led Youth Through Care program to support Aboriginal children and young people transition from custody and help settle back in the community, and
• more training for youth justice staff to deliver a culturally safe and responsive youth justice custodial service.

In line with the recommendations from Wirkara Kulpa and the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety is coordinating the development of a Youth Social and Emotional Wellbeing Strategy, in partnership with the Aboriginal community, which will further enhance the cultural safety of services in custody for Aboriginal children and young people.

Wirkara Kulpa also addresses 56 recommendations from the CCYP's 2021 Our youth, our way inquiry into the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in Victoria's youth justice system.