The Victorian Opposition has called for a review into a seven-hour stand-off at a youth centre yesterday to be made public.
Six teenage boys were involved in a youth justice centre riot yesterday, resulting in a seven-hour stand-off with police which eventually ended when the youths surrendered last night.
The youths were on top of the facility in Melbourne, armed with poles, and it’s claimed they damaged parts of the building’s roof.
Now, the Victorian Opposition has called for a review of the riot to be made public.
Georgie Crozier, the families and children spokesperson for the opposition said that yesterday’s incident is the second in a six-month period.
“The Government needs to act ... because the destructive and dangerous nature of these riots is simply not acceptable,” she said.
The review into the first incident by the Department of Human Services was not made public because of security concerns, the ABC reported.
“The Minister cited security concerns for that review not to be released publicly despite the fact that the review into the Melbourne Remand Centre riot ... was released publicly,” Crozier said.
“I think we need to understand what is going on, why justice is out of control under Labor.”
It’s not known what sparked the incident but Crozier said she believes it to be linked to an incident on Sunday.
“I believe there was mayhem on Sunday with some issue of those clients in Parkville breaking into the horticulture centre and getting a number of tools, using those as weapons,” she said.
“These are very serious situations, putting the community, putting other clients at risk, putting the workers in the facility at risk.”
Director of secure services at the centre Ian Lanyon denied he had lost control of the facility.
“The safety of the community, the staff and the clients is of paramount importance to us,” he said.
“At no time was the perimeter of the centre at risk or was there any risk of escape.
“We'll undertake a full investigation and review of the incident and that will certainly involve speaking to the clients to ascertain why they were escalated and what led them to undertaking these actions,” he said.
“The reality is in these environments we are dealing with some of the most complex and challenging clients in the state and they're here for this very reason and that's why they're contained within these environments unfortunately.”
