‘Precisely the wrong direction’: why is Victoria opening a $419m youth prison?

By the end of the year, Victoria will have a $419 million youth prison able to hold more children and young people than are currently imprisoned in total across the state.

The Cherry Creek Youth Justice Centre will be able to hold 140 children and young people at a cost of nearly $3 million for each bed, despite there being an average of only 119 young people each day in detention across Victoria, a number in steady decline.

The facility is set to be completed by the end of the year, and by the first half of 2023 will “accommodate” young people — boys aged 15 to 18 who need targeted intervention, according to the government.

But there are significant concerns around its location in Melbourne’s west, about 11km from Werribee station which is itself about 30km from the Melbourne CBD. This is in contrast to evidence from around the world identifying the need for youth facilities to be smaller and close to the neighbourhoods of those detained.

While the number of youth in detention is decreasing, there are also two youth detention centres in Victoria, Parkville and Malmsbury, which already operate at less than half capacity. The Victorian government spends nearly $182 million annually on youth justice facilities, about $1.4 million for each young person kept in detention. The Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety annual report 2021-22 found there was an annual daily average of 12.5 boys aged under 15 in detention in the state and 106.2 boys aged 15 and over in the state’s youth detention facilities on a given day.

The Cherry Creek facility was announced in 2018 after a number of riots at the Parkville youth detention centre. The plan was originally for a facility with a capacity of 244 people, at a cost of $288 million. Its size has been scaled back to 140 beds, but the price of its construction has skyrocketed to $419 million — nearly $3 million a bed.

Construction giant John Holland has been awarded a $400 million contract running until mid-2023 to establish the prison. The state government has said the Cherry Creek youth prison has created 300 ongoing jobs in the Werribee area, and 600 jobs during construction.

Its location is of particular concern to Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology fellow Peter Norden, who says international evidence shows these facilities need to be close to the young person’s neighbourhood.

“If you wanted to design a place that would separate at-risk children from their families and from mainstream society, you would find it difficult to do any ‘better’ than this,” Norden said. 

According to Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service CEO Nerita Waight, this is especially troubling for the First Nations children who are disproportionately represented in youth facilities.

“Their strength is their connection to culture, community and country,” Waight said. “Making it harder for loved ones to have contact with them strips them of that strength and that in turn limits their ability to be rehabilitated.”

The Victorian government has said there will be a transport link from Werribee station to the youth prison. It said the new facility was a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to improve the youth justice system and drive better outcomes for young people and the community: “Cherry Creek is a flagship youth justice facility, purpose-built to focus on rehabilitation.”

But Norden said: “Experts, both local and international, have told the Victorian government leaders that it is heading in precisely the wrong direction.

“What is needed instead, and has been shown to work in places like New York City, are small secure units close to the young person’s neighbourhood, with a maximum capacity of [fewer] than 20 residents.”

Norden said he warned the Victorian government this approach may lead to “disaster”, but was ignored.

Waight visited the centre and said it resembles a maximum-security adult prison.

“Sad that we live in a society that has youth prisons,” Waight said. “Sad that we put so much effort and money into building youth prisons, rather than putting that effort and money into ensuring young people have the support they need to avoid contact with the criminal legal system in the first place.

“Instead of endlessly building prisons, we should be spending that money on fixing the child protection system and ensuring every child has access to the health, education and support services they need. If we did that, we wouldn’t need youth prisons.”

Should the Victorian government rethink putting young offenders into this big and isolated prison? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.